STEEL FOR MUNITIONS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1707, 3 May 1917, Page 4

STEEL FOR MUNITIONS.

Two questions often asked at the present juncture are, first, whether we could find facilities to send to Europe, in Hie event of war, the steel which the Allies need for their own munition factories, and, second, whether the American mills would at once divert deliveries from foreign governments to our own. As to the mills being able to maintain the great hulk of their export trade, even in the event of war with Germany steel makers profess to feel no apprehension (declared the Pittsburgh correspondent of the New York Evening Post on 2nd March). They point out that the. great bulk of our iron and steel exports are for war purposes, whether classed strictly as “munitions" ar not, and the Allies arc expected to find vessels. In the past, when private shipping has not been available, the Allies have commandeered whatever was necessary. Exports to neutral countries might he cut off, and in a measure probably would he; hut the proportion of that business is small, much less than one-third the total. The hulk of our present iron and steel exports goes to Canada, England, France, Italy and Russia. The List thought among steel manufacturers would be to fill orders promptly for the United States Government through holding up or repudiating contracts for deliveries to the Allies. Germany would he the common enemy, and it would he very inefficient strategy ro aid one of Germany’s enemies at the expense of the others. There would he some change in the handling of deliveries, hut the delay would affect deliveries of steel to ordinary domestic consumers.