Strain Upon Industry

Southland Times, Issue 24890, 2 November 1942, Page 4

Strain Upon Industry

How far can the drive for foreign labour be said to reveal a difficult situation inside Germany? Comparisons with the last war are valid only when some attention is given to the changed conditions. In 1916 the German army conscripted 1,443,000 men; but in 1917 (which would correspond with 1941-42, the third year of the present war) it could obtain no more than 662,000, and for the 10 months of 1918 the figure dropped to 405,000. War industries swallowed an increasing number of conscripts, supplemented by women, older men and prisoners. At the beginning of the fourth year of the present war Germany had gained control of the greater part of Europe, including Holland, Denmark and Norway, which in the last conflict were able to remain neutral. The group of nations from which Germany can take man-power now has a total population of at least 170,000,000, as against 136,000,000 under the Central Powers in the Great War. Moreover, German casualties up to the invasion of Russia did not exceed 200,000 —fewer than the 225,000 men killed, wounded and missing in the first three months of 1914. The situation did not become difficult until the eastern blitzkrieg slowed down to a more or less stationary warfare. It is hard to obtain reliable figures for- casualties in the Russian campaign. German sources have given the total of more than 1,500,000 killed, wounded and missing in all battles (in Russia and elsewhere) up to the midsummer of 1942. These figures are almost certainly unreliable: the real total may be much higher. Germany’s armed forces are now believed to number more than 7,000,000 men. It has been estimated that at least 9,000,000 men (including casualties) have been taken from civil employment. The drafting of women into industry had come close to its maximum at the beginning of the war. Extra labour, made increasingly necessary by the demands of industries that have to equip mechanized armies, must therefore be drawn mainly from foreign populations. Although prisoners can be used they are at best a makeshift form of labour, since they lack the specialized training needed for modern industrial processes. It can be seen that, although the military losses may not have been as heavy as in the last war, the dependence of modern armies on a complex industrial machinery has created the labour problem which must now be causing anxiety in Germany. Even when this is admitted, however, it is still a fact that Germany is better off today for man-power than she was in 1917-18. The attempt to find forced labour may therefore be a hurried preparation for the strains that are expected as the United Nations exert a stronger military pressure. Hiller knows what is coming, and is trying desperately to be ready. There is only one way to exhaust German reserves of manpower, and that is by increasing the strains of battle until transport and industry grow weaker, and the entire system comes at last to the moment of collapse.