ECONOMIC WAR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 December 1939, Page 7

ECONOMIC WAR

STRONG POSITION HELD BY BRITAIN GERMAN RESERVES SMALL AND DIMINISHING. EFFECT OF THE REPRISALS ORDER. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. December 9. Increasingly the British Press and informed public opinion are manifesting an interest in the economic aspect of the war. Frequently the opinion is expressed that the economic front may ultimately be the one upon which the struggle is won or lost. In an interesting article reviewing the economic situation, the weekly •newspaper “Economist” says: "The central task of the war. therefore, becomes speedy mobilisation of our full economic strength.’ In this connection, special importance attaches to estimates published in the “Round Table” of the Allies’ holdings of negotiable foreign investments and gold. These the "Round Table" estimates as equivalent to the labour of 5,000,000 to 7.000.000 for many years. In comparison Germany’s reserves of gold and foreign exchange, even after the seizure of the assets of Austrian and Czech national banks, are estimated at 250.000,000 dollars at most, and the position certainly has been steadily deteriorating since the beginning of the war. as the result of the progressive decline of exports, and it must be presumed will deteriorate even more rapidly as the result of the British reprisal' order regarding seizure of German exports.