Manawatu Evening Standard. FRIDAY, AUGUST 13, 1937. BATTLE FOR METALS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 217, 13 August 1937, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. FRIDAY, AUGUST 13, 1937. BATTLE FOR METALS.

Periodic cable advices from London indicate a continuance of the unsatisfied demand for base metals, with a consequent retention of abnormally high prices, particularly for tin and copper. The fact that the inquiry has been sustained during so many months dispels any suggestion of a merely transient, speculative interest in the market, but rather serves to emphasise that a hitherto unparalleled impetus has been afforded to this commerce. Nor is it a type of trading unrelated to apparently extraneous policies; on the contrary it is a significant exposition of the principles of cause and effect, of supply and demand. In a recent month Great Britain established a new record production of a million tons of pig iron, for the processing of which, with almost equal quantities every month, vast supplies of raw material are required. Nor are British furnaces alone accelerating their output, but in every important country previously unequalled production figures are being set. It is an open secret. that Germany’s keen interest in the ultimate decision in the Spanish conflict is largely the result of her desire for ample access to the rich' metal deposits in Spain; Japanese interest in the Asiatic mainland is similarly stimulated. New Zealand* is by no means unfamiliar with the vast trade in scrap metals by Japan, and it is of interest to learn authoritatively that in the past four years America has exported 7,500,000 tons of such metal, on which supplies Japan, Italy, and Poland are almost entirely dependent. In 1935 the United States sent scrap metal to thirty countries —since then the trade has no doubt been stimulated to an even greater extent—and supplied Japan with 95 per cent, of her needs. As an interesting corollary both Japan and Italy in that year produced more steel than in any other in their history. Germany, it has been observed, no longer mints silver mark pieces, the whole, of that coinage having been withdrawn to be replaced by nickel marks. The silver was sold on the world market at a profit, and the nation secured an immensely valuable substitute in three thousand tons of war material in convenient form, and at immediate call. The greater portion of this metal originates in Canada, which supplies 90 per cent, of the world markets. Germany and Russia being the biggest buyers, the former, of course, for the manufacture of coinage. But the “world war for metals,’’ as this insistent demand has been termed, is not confined to the open market; rather is the battle for Sufficiency and su-

periority chiefly waged in the nations’ laboratories. The common aim is to produce a steel alloy, lighter, stronger, and more elastic than any other known; the object for which scientists are searching is a metal called beryllium, in which a young British research worker has been singularly successful, having eliminated the last impurity. Ten years ago the metal was worth ,£SOOO a pound, but as an outcome-of British and German research the price has fallen to £ls. In the United States three hundred Government scientists, in the search for a wonder metal, have analysed more than ten thousand specimens of rocks and rare metals, some from immense depths in the earth. In the vicinity of Alice Springs, in Australia, a mine has been discovered which yields an ore that prolongs the steel bores of naval guns three times; already Japan and America have purchased several shipments, but Great Britain has been offered the sole rights. Simultaneously there is afi unsatisfied demand for manganese,, an element vital in the manufacture of armaments. In 1935, the latest period for which figures are available, Britain imported nearly 223,000 tons, the United States nearly 234,000 tons, and Germany 395,000 tons. Italy is striving to turn her Abyssinian adventure to profit by combing her new territory for metals and raw materials. Even if she is not successful she can at least claim to lead the world in the production of synthetic cotton. Perhaps to a much lesser degree, but no less important, is the mineral research proposed to be undertaken in the Dominion, and the recent announcement of the Minister of Mines that he would not consider even £500,000 excessive expenditure in the search for adequate oil supplies can be taken as an earnest of the Government's awareness of New Zealand s danger in her present entire dependence on external sources. The establishment of reliable and payable supplies of mineral oil would not only prove of . immense value in the event of an emergency, but under normal circumstances would lend a fillip to the Dominion’s industrial development.