GERMANY’S LOSSES

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 184, 1 May 1940, Page 9

GERMANY’S LOSSES

Iron Ore Supplies And Shipping EFFECT OF INVASION OF NORWAY (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, April 29. The attention of the British Press is again being directed to the effect of the invasion of Norway on Germany’s supplies of iron orc. The subject is also attracting attention in the newspapers of certain neutral countries, and prominence is given in London to a carefully balanced survey in the Vatican newspaper “Osservatore Romano.” It points out that in 1638 Germany produced 11,000,000 of the 33,000,000 tons she required. Of the 22,000,000 tons which she hitherto obtained from abroad, some 1,000,000 tons came from Norway aud 9,000,000 from Sweden. The blockade of Narvik and the destruction of the railway to Kiruna have paralyzed the traffic. The situation, it is pointed out, may change, but at the moment Germany has lost 9,000,000 tons imported from Ally countries and 10,000,000 tons from Scandihavin, and can only count on getting 3,000,000 tons from other sources at a time ■ when iron ore is of paramount importance. The paper examines tlie loss which Germany’s Scandinavian adventure has inflicted upon herself in regard to shipping. Norway’s mercantile fleet of 19S0 ships and 4,000,000 tons is exceptionally large—the third largest in the world—while Denmark’s 590 ships represent 1,500,000 tons. A great part of the fleets of both nations was in foreign ports when the invasion ■began, and they cannot in any case return to their home ports, and, as is now known, most of them have passed into Allied control. The Vatican newspaper remarks that the Allies thus have not only been compensated for all the losses of their own mercantile marine, but have actually augmented the size of 'their mercantile fleets. The further point is made that while at the beginning of the war the trade of Denmark and Norway with the United States increased by 50 per cent, and' presumably extra American goods were going to Germany, neither Denmark nor Norway can now render such service to Germany.