SIBERIA’S GREAT WEALTH.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1881, 24 September 1918, Page 4

SIBERIA’S GREAT WEALTH.

The potential wealth of Siberia is almost unlimited, and the Allies should give the question of its supplies their urgent attention, declared Herbert Woolmer, one of the chief authorities of the economic Avealth of the Siberian regions, in an intervieAv with Reuter’s recently. ■ Siberia, he declared, could export ehormdus quantities of cereals, live stock, fish, dairy products, precious and common metals, coals, Avhale oil, timber, wool, skins, etc. The population Avas growing fast, (he immigration in the last decade being greater to that into Canada in (he same period. It Germany obtained control of the Trans-Siberi-an railway, he pointed out, it would not be very difficult for her to get food supplies and raw materials from this territory —everything she needs, in fact, even to cotton from Tashkent. As all this natural wealth must Mow along the railway, he continued, the Allies should do their utmost to attract it northward towards Archangel, and eastward towards Yladivoslock, by organising and assisting the Russians to operate (heir railways, thus preventing the Germans from making use of these rich sources of revenues and supplies. The Allies, he insisted, should also make every effort to start again (he work of enlarging the industrial plants of Russia, with a view to balancing the supply and demand in the country itself. The chief object to keep in A'iew, he said, was to satisfy the people’s most urgent needs and create afresh among them a feeling of independence and the sense that (hey themselves Avere reorganising their own country avUli the friendly help of their old allies.