WARNING GIVEN.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 371, 27 February 1937, Page 3

WARNING GIVEN.

Nazis Ensure Adequate Food

Supply,

A warning that, in the event of war, Germany’s economic structure must be so strong that it would no*t collapse, as it did during the last v-'ar, was given in a lecture by Coloney Thomas, chief of Military Economic Staff of the German War imnistry. Colonel Thomas, whose position makes him one of the most influential officers behind the scenes in German public life, showed the part he played by the recently-proclaimed Four Years’ Plan for the transformation of German economy into an instrument of the State, which will, in the opinion of the most able military and Industrial leaders, render it immune against the errors of organisation which lost the Great War for Germany.

“Remember,’’ he said, “that, besides the men that fell at the front nearly 800,000 people died as the result of under-nourishment. Remember that the lack of raw materials at times prevented or delayed military operations, such as the attack on Verdun, so that our armies had to advance right into Rumania and the Ukraine to provide something faintly resembling an organised food supply.

“We lost the war because we did not recognise the far-reaching connection betwteen military operations and economic warfare, and because we under-estimated our opponents’ economic resources.’ and over-estimat-ed our own. Indeed, the war was already lost when Germany faced the winter of 1916-17 and turnips became our main food supply. “Ft Would be an unforgivable act of negligence if, in a future war, we failed to assess the dependence of strategy upon the nation’s economic situation. “At present we £an say., without fear of controdiction. that the German nation is in a situation of emergency. If in foreign countries, there is talk about the economic futility of our Four Years’ Plan, we ca» only reply that economic common sense was killed by the Treaty of Versailles. The .present-day tension, which in Berlin creates war psychosis, is the result of the economic short-sighted-ness of our former opponents. Economic tension leads to political tension. “The German Army to-day is particularly careful to see that the necessary fund for its.' reconstruction has been produced, thanks to the great ability of the Minister of economics, Dr. Schacht. Thus the military authorities are no longer the prey, as they often w'ere in the past, of financial worries.