STATE PARAMOUNT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 June 1939, Page 9

STATE PARAMOUNT

INTERNATIONAL EXHIBIT PLANNING FOR WAR EMERGENCY CANNONS INSTEAD OF BUTTER. Germany’s new and swiftly acquired hegemony over former Czechoslovakia, and the return to the Reich of MemeUand without a shot being filed, are regarded as striking evidence by authorities here of the success of a policy of preparedness whereto everything has been sacrificed since National Socialism came to power six years ago, states J. Emlyn Williams in the “Christian Science Monitor.” Not only in the so-called military sphere, but also in finance and economics, everything has been concentrated upon establishing a system of self-sufficiency, either to face possible war or to be able to exert Germany’s full military strength for the attainment of some desired foreign political objective. Acquisition of the natural resources, wealth, and manpower of Bohemia and Moravia by Germany will help to save a system which has been undergoing a severe strain during the past few months and will extend considerably the development along these lines made possible by the Reich’s preparedness policy. This policy, to which has been given the name “Wehrwirtschaft” (planning for war emergency), extends to every sphere of national activity. It is the logical development of the belief expressed so often by many of presentday leaders of Germany that the lesson of 1914-18 is that the success of any new war will depend not merely upon large armed forces, but also upon the mobilisation of the country’s economic forces well ahead of any catastrophe. Hence, the armaments industry, in the narrow sense of that term, is but a small part of that which is considered essential for the new preparedness. Early in 1938 all political, military, and economic powers were united in Herr Hitler; and after the Ministry of Economic Affairs had been merged in the Four-Year Plan, FieldMarshal Hermann Goering was entrusted with the task of achieving the self-sufficiency goal. The thoroughness with which this policy has been pursued is probably not appreciated in other countries, despite the many articles which have been written about it. Yet the problem of “cannons or butter” has long been settled for the German people by their leaders in favour of cannons. This comes home to the population in the shortage of foodstuffs and of good quality fruits, in the queues lined up to obtain essential commodities, which become scarce from time to time, and in the longer hours worked in industries of national importance. But against these facts the leaders point to the annexations of Austria and Sudetenland and preach glory rather than ■ immediate physical and cultural needs.

The standards of profit and loss applied to business in democratic States play little part in Germany, and general well-being has been temporarily abandoned to the ideal of a new selfsufficing preparedness for the possibility of a new war or for a forceful presentation of the Reich’s “just and rightful claims” —yesterday, for the areas under foreign domination, bordering on Germany; tomorrow, maybe for colonies or for economic expansion to the borders of Soviet Russia. During the first three years of National Socialism, concentration was upon rearmament in the air, particularly because this could be effected in secret, and because, at that time, it was impossible to supply the weapons, equipment, etc., which large-scale military and naval rearmament demanded. By 1936, the situation had changed considerably. Factories were working night and day turning out airplanes and armaments, and naval wharves were laying the keels of new war vessels. All these things w’ere being done on a scale equal to, in some cases larger than, that of any of the other European Great Powers.

Production of xvhat are called the “instruments of xvar” is continuing as fast as elsexvhere in the world, but for the last txvo and a-half years the “war planning” has been extended into every sphere of economic activity. Actions which might otherxvise be regarded as the encouragement of an enlightened state for new inventors and experimenters have been conducted on such a scale as to indicate the importance xvhich the authorities attach to their success. It is not the advancement of physical science but lhe application of the results of the findings of their best researchers to the end of economic self-sufficiency which is all-important. Under this category come the continued experiments in the decarbonisation of coal for home production of driving fuel, the manufacture of synthetic rubber (Buna), of more and more wearing apparel from wood, experimental borings for the production of an inferior quality crude oil at home, the building of enormous and costly xvorks for the refining of the lowest grade mineral orcs, and scores of other projects, all of which are undoubtedly colossal, both in conception and in execution, but leave one with the question, when normal times return again, what then? For example, the Hermann Goering Works seek to satisfy the needs of the iron and steel industry. It may do much to supply the basis ores at tremendous cost, but between this stage and that of the completion of the final product in the form which “economic military necessity” demands, a number of questions arise which affect the entire working of German industry. The State ha; taken a tremendous part in all this development. But it has never been a direct producer, not even of armaments. (The Suhler Arms Factory, it is true, is run as a public company, but this is an exception, because it was formerly owned by Jews and Aryanised in the early days of the Third Reich). The State, hoxvever, both by decree and in other ways, has made its influence felt on private enterprise. It has directed both labour and the supplies of raw materials into the factories engaged upon “works of national importance.” It has financed such works through loans contributed from private enterprise, compensating the latter through tax concessions, and it is generally stated by industrialists themselves that in the case of publiccontracts the State demands such details as to costs, etc., that it can real!} determine profits also.