RAW MATERIALS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 January 1942, Page 3

RAW MATERIALS

SERIOUS SHORTAGE REPORTED

IN FRANCE FACTORIES CLOSING FOR TEN DAYS. ONLY BEGINNING OF CRISIS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, January 14. The “Tribune de Geneve” says that economy in France is seriously affected by the increasing dearth of raw materials. “The Government decision to close almost all factories for 10 days is only the beginning of a crisis which will grow if the war lasts much longer.” A Stockholm newspaper says there is a shortage of iron in France, though not in the industries working for Germany. Iron supplies for inland civil use, which were 350,000 tons before the war, will be cut down to 145,000 tons in the spring, and are now 210,000 tons, while the present consumption is estimated at 230,000 tons a month. In another German satellite State, owing to the petrol shortage all passenger cars except one or two allotted to each Government authority and large firms are being immobilised. In Germany itself there is a great shortage of labour reserve in industries, according to a broadcast from Frankfurt.