WHALE OIL SUPPLY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 126, 27 April 1940, Page 9

WHALE OIL SUPPLY.

EFFECT OF THE WAR. BRITAIN’S LARGER SHARE. (British Official Wireless.) Received April 27, 12.25 p.m. RUGBY, April 26. The German invasion of Norway will, inter alia, have a very adverse effect on important imports into Germany of whale oil. Germany during the past ten years has been the largest importer of whale oil, which is mainly used in the manufacture of margarine and soap —two commodities of which she is notoriously short. Whereas, says the current issue of the Economist, Germany produced between 10 and 15 per cent, of the world output of whale oil, she is no longer in a position to send out her factory ships, while the Norwegian fleet, which produced between onethird and one-half of the world’s whale oil in the past ten years, is now on the way back from the Antarctic and will almost certainly make Britain its base so long as Norway , is partly occupied by Germany. ‘As Britain is the second-largest whale oil producer—its share is nearly one-third of the world’s total —between two-thirds and three-quarters of the world’s whale oil supply will be under British control for the duration of the war.