RAW MATERIALS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 176, 26 June 1937, Page 16

RAW MATERIALS.

GERMANY’S PRESSING NEED

IRON RATIONED

Germany is feeling the shortage of raw materials acutely, and the Government has now been forced to iation iron, according to the Manchester Guardian’s correspondent in .Berlin. The shortage is principally due to heavy purchases that are being made by Great Britain and by other countries for rearmament and to the general trade revival. So far as the armaments competition continues, Germany is likely to be at an increasing disadvantage in obtaining the copper, nickel, iron, and rubber at the greatly increased prices now prevailing because of the deterioration of her foreign trade through her currency and autarkist trade policy. . , - , ~ The alternative products and the additions to raw material supplies made by the Four-Year Plan are, of course, inadequate lor Germany’s full needs. The rise in the price of grain will also he felt, since Germany will have to import wheat because of the shortage in her own supplies. The general public will have to bear the weight of the iron shortage in the first instance, existing supplies and current deliveries being earmarked first for German armaments and for public works. The new iron rationing scheme aims at regulating orders for iron and steel products in accordance with the capacity of production permitted by iron supplies. Competition between firms is forbidden, and quotas have been fixed in the leading industries. Tile export industries will receive the most favourable treatment after armaments and public works, requirement supplies for the latter having been assured by monthly quotas.

Public and private building of largescale edifices is to be restricted, particularly in the case of ferro-conerete structures. Small house building is not to be interfered with.