AXIS OIL SUPPLIES.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 December 1940, Page 4

AXIS OIL SUPPLIES.

ROSY but extremely unconvincing account of the oil supplies available to the Axis Powers was given in a message from a Budapest correspondent published yesterday. Although it professed to quote “American oil men,” it seems rather probable that the report really represented a poor attempt by Dr Goebbels or some of his myrmidons to make the best of a bad job. It was stated, amongst other things, that Germany had drawn millions of tons of oil from Rumania in 1940, “despite ice, floods and earthquakes,” and that her imports would rise. This they certainly will not do during the winter months foi- which the Danube is frozen over. Another statement was that: “Some refineries are damaged, but are fully stocked. Shipment is being made from stores until the refineries resume.” This undoubtedly makes much too light ot the havoc wrought by the R.A.F. on German synthetic oil plants and on stores of oil in Germany and in occupied territory. The facts of the position no doubt have been indicated accurately by the British Minister of Economic Warfare (Dr Dalton) in his declaration that Germany has used up the Stocks of oil looted in occupied countlies and is using up more oil than she is producing—that is to say, is cutting into her reserves—and that the shortage of oil in Axis countries wi e felt acutely in a period of months. What precisely that may mean epends on a variety of factors, including the extent to which econo v can be carried in Germany and in other parts of the Axis spieie. only production of oil under Axis control, however, is in u <_ from the German synthetic plants. The last, l ’ nd£ ! m ? g 7, rn L. h in<T nvor production, were estimated to be capable of producing s n g :.: nn a million tons of oil per annum. The difficulty of Germany s position, one British authority observed recently, is apparent. Even with the whole of the Ruma ”FA\ ol .t f { I C i ’h S possession, and allowing for the maximum qua r.icc,--, 7 could afford to export to her (the total annual ax ’ ~ .... C . P said to amount to less than a million tons), sla ~in rip w ith n m ' short of the full requirements of her air opeiat °ns alone. without making any allowance for petrol-driven land veh cles oi for her economic needs. This may be rather optimistic, but bearing in mind that Germany has to allot supplies to Italy and must allow the occupied countries to import a certain amount of petrol if their economic life is to be kept going, it is not in doubt that the Axis Powers are handicapped by an acute and increasing shortage of oil. It has been reported credibly that this shortage was an important subject of discussion between Hitler and Mussolini when they met a couple of months ago on the Brenner Pass.