COMPELLED TO ATTACK

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 169, 5 June 1940, Page 6

COMPELLED TO ATTACK

GERMANY'S STRAITS EFFECT OF WINTER It is the opinion of economic experts that Hitler has been impelled to make what looks like an immense gamble of an offensive on the Western Front by the fact that he cannot see his way through another winter. It is evident that the Allied economic warfare has made its mark 011 Germany. In the case of food available, supplies are probably sufficient for the territory of the old Reich, but the problem is now complicated by the invasion of other countries. Both Belgium and HoMand are highly industrialised, densely populated, and far from self-sufficient. Considerable damage has been done to the agricultural areas of Holland, and probably Germany, instead of obtaining supplies from this source, as in the past, will have to assist the Dutch to feed themselves. The Belgian jjopulation has alwaj'S been extremely dependent on overseas imports for food. At The same time Germany is faced with n considerably smaller harvest than last year, not only through the effect of the winter or autumn sowing, but also the destruction of corn in the eastern districts by flooding after heavy snowfalls. The prospects' for importing food is affected by the diminution of the Russian acreage sown. ' To April, 1940, this is one-third of what it was in April, 1939. The Balkan harvest prospects of maize and oil-produc-ing seeds are equally poor. Denmark's grain crop is not encouraging, and that country is suffering from the shortage of feeding stuffs. Disease in Germany. Reports have also been received of serious foot and mouth disease in Germany and a sea city of the necessary vaccine, while the authorities at the same time are unwilling to isolate whole districts, as done in Britain, for various reasons, including the fear of"immobilising labour. German agriculture also has to cope with a shortage of labour and the problems arising from the shortage of petrol, affecting the mechanisation of farming. There is likely to be a lack of the usual immigrant farm labour for the harvest from Italy. Hungary and neighbouring countries, although this voluntary labour will be made up, as far as possible, by a policy of conscript labour. From the information available it is believed that the German population generally is showing the effects of the serious deterioration in labour conditions since the war began. Civilians are also affected by a shortage of trained doctors. The number of registered medical practitioners in the Reich fell from 5(?,000 in 1932 to 38,000 in 1939. The latest figure gives only five doctors to 10,000 of population, compared with 11 to every 10,000 in Britain.