ECONOMIC STRAIN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 November 1939, Page 5

ECONOMIC STRAIN

BECOMING VERY APPARENT IN GERMANY TWO MILLION WORKERS UNEMPLOYED. SHORTAGE OF ESSENTIAL MATERIALS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. October 30. Evidence is aceimiulat ing’ of the ct'l’ecls ol’ the British blockade on Germany’s economy. which, according' to fici'al information, is preventing !H> per rent of German ships reaching German ports. In 1937 Germany imported 1.18.000.000 Reichsmarks’ worth of ‘llbbcy, and now her entire supply is cut off. Her “buna” substitute coveis only about one-fifth of the peace tune consumption. The blockade ms c m cut off one-third of Germany s iron ore imports. Since the German exports ol textiles have been cut off her home supplies would be increased by about one-third of ’the total production, and Germany’s inability now to supplj textiles must be clue, therefore, to a lack of raw material and suggests that the surplus slocks were limited at the outbreak of war. The potential supplies from Russia are relatively inaccessible, and Germany’s war time requirements m coton are equal to above two and a half times the expected maximum Sox ict output for 1942. Other details oi the ellect ol the blockade are a probable shortage ot fish in Germany, owing to lie . fab ‘ the normal North Sea catch is 300.000 tons a year against a Baltic Sea catch of 30.000 tons. . . German unemployment has jumped from a few thousand to more than 2,000,000, according to a neutral observer, partly due to the closing down of the textile and shoe factories owing to lack of raw material. The great shortage of petrol is indicated by an order by the German Ministry of Transport for conversion to use of gaseous fuels by all the commercial vehicles that are still allowed to operate. Interesting evidence comes from an authoritative source in Yugoslavia. It is learned that Germany is unable to supply textiles of any kind, tin plates, or rubber manufactures. The shortage of rubber if “■t-'G'i hy.t'm fact that