DECLINE SETS IN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20660, 10 January 1942, Page 5

DECLINE SETS IN

GERMAN PRODUCTION ITALY NEAR STARVATION LONDON, Jan. 7. The Ministry of Economic Warfare stated this afternoon that from evidence reaching London it was clear that Germany had fallen below the peak level reached last spring. The decline had set in. Germany was unable to use all the production facilities at her disposal in the ocepied territories and munitions plants lay idle. in France,, were short of supplies and in Czechoslovakia labour trouble acted as permanent sabotage. Italy was unable to work to capacity, her best workers were in Germany and those who remained were underfed to a point even beyond inefficiency. Germany, the spokesman added, was unlikely to feel any scarcity in metals for the next six months, although her supplies of nickel and copper should be quite exhausted at the end of the war. It is difficult to see in what way she will be able to replace these two vital war materials. Deficiencies of oil, leather, rubber and textiles were growing more severe andfin the case of the latter it was reckoned her needs were nnly two-thirds covered. In the textile category were included all fibres such as hemp and jute, which were industrially essential. Germany was not yet dangerously underfed, although her ally, Italy, was at starvation level. The position in Italy was so bad that a detailed analysis is illuminating. It is generally reckoned that 3000 calories are needed daily. Ordinary Italian workers received 2200 calories, and the heavy worker 2600. It was scarcely surprising that the Italian armament output was miserable. In Germany the ordinary man was granted 2300 calories, but the German heavy worker was given 3300.