Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, JANUARY 29, 1940. THE BLOCKADE AND THE DANUBE.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 January 1940, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, JANUARY 29, 1940. THE BLOCKADE AND THE DANUBE.

GERMANY’S antidote to the Allied naval blockade is the Danube. For about six weeks supplies coming up the Danube will be cut, off because the river is frozen, and reports from many mid-European sources indicate that tins is an exceptionally severe winter —some say the worst lot /o \eais. There are many loopholes in the naval blockade. 1 hat is. perhaps, the worst, feature of the present localisation ot the war in. Europe. Britain can stop overseas imports from entering small neutral countries in excess of their peace time needs, and can prevent German exports leaving Europe; but she can do little to interrupt the flow of trade from Russia to Germany, or from the southern European countries to Germany. Such an interruption was achieved in the Great War by the various Balkan, campaigns, but this time Britain can only hope to profit from such interventions of nature as the freezing ot t le Danube, or from the difficulties Germany may experience m making payments to the Balkan countries.

The present “freeze'’ of the Danube cannot. be ol suflieient duration to throttle Germany economically but it can add greatly to her embarrassments. Rail traffic naturally remains, but the difficulties of rolling stock are constantly growing, the more so because the German, position in this regard has steadily deteriorated in the last three years and because military needs are. making ever-increasing demands on the German railways. A very large proportion of the Balkan, trade goes to Germany by means of the Danube. We were-told in October that an army of'workers loaded 300,000 tons of Rumanian gram for Germany in. one fleet of German, Dutch and Hungarian barges at Turnu Severin, near the iron Gates ol the Danube, and*this was but a normal procedure. It will be easily realised what, is implied when 1200 such barges, many of them oil tankers, are held in the grip of the ice. as they are at the moment.

'Even assuming that Germany could take the entire exports of Italy and the Dannbian countries, she could get only 3,500,000 tons of foodstuffs a year, no live stock, practically no coal, only 610,000 tons of iron ore, no manganese, less than 100,000 tons of pig iron and ferro-alloys, no steel, 30.000 lons ol copper. 40,000 tons of lead, 80.000 tons of zinc, no tin or nickel, no cotton, flax, wool, or rayon, no rubber or paper, and only an insignificant quantity of timber. Nearly halt the five million tons of petroleum comes from the wells of the companies owned by Britain and France, and even under the new agreement, made by Rumania with Germany last month, the Germans have the right to only one-third of the exportable surplus. 1 his, too, is subject to the arrangement of delivery by themselves and to the production of satisfactory terms of payment. A week or two ago we were informed in the cables that Rumania received in part payment of money owing to her by Germany (it) military aeroplanes, but it is easily understandable that Germany cannot go on indefinitely making payment in armaments which she particularly requires for her own warfare. The cables today provide evidence that Germany is using the “mailed list" in regard to Ronmania, but the latter apparently does not intend to°take any other steps than those of fulfilling her undertakings according to treaties, which is a satisfactory assurance as far as Britain is concerned.