RUSSIAN SUPPLIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 November 1939, Page 5

RUSSIAN SUPPLIES

NOT READILY AVAILABLE TO GERMANY EARLY HOPES FADING. FACTORS OF PRODUCTION & TRANSPORT. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright NEW YORK November 15. The Berlin correspondent of "The Xew York Tinies,” Mr W. Tolisehns. says the Press is si ill present ing a rosy picture of Russian supplies rolling into Germany, but military publications and military commentators tire growing sceptical. They point out that Russian resources need development and their production is mostly below the Soviet’s own requirements, Germany can count on only food, iron, manganese and timber. Hopes regarding- oil are melting, while, though she has vast undeveloped resources in lead, copper, zinc, nickel and tin. the Soviet is importing these basic war materials herself. Colonel von Niedermayor told the Cologne Geographic Society that Germany’s inability to obtain supplies was due to:— (1) Soviet industrialisation, which increased the consumption of raw materials faster than their production. He added that centralised and dictatorial direction was suppressing personal interest and affecting quality. (2) The vastness of the territory in which the resources were scattered, plus the fact that while production had increased 250 per cent, rail facilities had increased only 48 per cent. The railways had virtually not been repaired since the days of the Czars. Only 30 per cent of the railways were double-tracked. (3) Lack ofj'oreign experts and technicians. Colonel von Niedermayer anticipated that even supplies of food and fodder will not be large enough, because, while agriculture has been made entirely dependent on tractors, they often lack the petrol to operate.