CUTTING OFF SUPPLIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 August 1939, Page 8

CUTTING OFF SUPPLIES

GREAT BRITAIN'S POSITION. “We have established beyond all question, that Germany and Italy would not be a menace to anybody but for the materials which they get from the British Empire,” said Mr Alfred Edwards, M.P., in the House of Commons. “The British Empire can stop those materials from going there. Germany could not fight a war for longer than six months duration at the very cutside if we were to stop that trade. The Government may say, ‘We cannot afford to stop the trade, because we must have this export in order to get currency.’ If the Dominions agree, let us raise a loan. Let us buy the raw materials from them and store them in the Dominions. We can sell them in the open market when the crisis has passed. We can sell them io the other people when there is to be some disarmament. It is a terrible indictment of the Government that Germany, Japan and Italy would not be a menace to anybody in the world if we refused to supply them with essential raw materials. From what I know of America they would follow our lead. If America and Britain controlled the raw materials—about 75 per cent of them are under our control —we could then declare peace on earth and good will to man, instead of living under this constant threat of someone declaring war on us.”