SCANDINAVIA’S PLIGHT

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21229, 27 September 1940, Page 12

SCANDINAVIA’S PLIGHT

COLLAPSE OF EXPORT TRADE BRITISH BLOCKADE TIGHTENS It is beyond any doubt that the German occupation of Denmark and Norway has brought ruin to the once i prosperous countries of the North. ! Apart from the ruthless confiscation | of all available foodstuffs in- the ocI cupied territories and the wholesale 1 buying up of goods for worthless | paper money, the destruction of crops and industrial establishments in the course of hostilities and the scarcity of labour, Scandinavia and Finland i have lost the major and most profitj able part of their foreign trade. I Scandinavian and Finnish produc- ; tion was largely complimentary to that of Great Briain and close economic interdependence had been gradually established. As much as 60 per cent of all Danish exports went to Britain, and the British share ot ; exports from Norway, Sweden, and Finland was 28 per cent, 25 per cent, and 47 per cent respectively. These i amounts were far larger than the | share of any other single country. The establishment of the Germans . in Denmark and Norway brought the j four northern countries under the I British blockade and cut off contact with the outside world. This meant the loss not only of all the best customers. but of many vital raw mate--1 rials. Lack of fodder has already led to heavy slaughter of Danish and , Norweigan livestock, while Denmark ! js threatened with a food shortage. Textile industries have been reduced to stagnation. Imports of bauxite \ and cryolite to Norway have been | stopped, and the production of alu- | minimum, of which Norway used to be the first exporter in the world, has been virtually discontinued. Min- | ing was not seriously affected, but • when Germany gained control of the i rich deposits in Belgium, Luxem- ! burg, and Alsace her interest in Swedish and Norwegian ores rapidly diminished. Thus Germany has caused the collapse of the whole Northern I economic system.