Much the same considerations apply to iron ore—number 2 in the list of war essentials. The consumption of iron ore required to maintain the steel industry at capacity is of the order of 30 million tons a year. Of this, as much as one-half by weight (but much less in iron content) is produced inside Greater Germany. Last year, 22 million tons of ore were imported, from Sweden, from Lorraine, and from Spain and misceltaneous sources. The key to the armament production is Swedish ore; for it is of the best quality. In time of war, it would be technically impossible to replace it by the lows grade domestic ore which is being developed for the Hermann Goering works—impossible, at any rate, without great increases in the supply of coke and of blast furnace capacity. In the "best" war from Germany's point of view, of course, the Swedish ore could still be imported, although the Lorraine ore would hardly be available. Moreover, even if the Swedish ore were available in unlimited quantities, Germany would have some difficulty in transporting it. In peace-time, most of it is brought down the west coast of Scandinavia through the North Sea and down the Rhine. To divert the supply is always possible, and plans have no doubt been prepared to do it. But such a diversion would greatly increase both the real cost of steel production and the strain on the internal transport system.
Ju the two most important war materials—oil and iron ore—Germany is not nearly self-sufficient. Even with uninterrupted access to Rumania for oil and Sweden for iron ore, she would have difficulty: in filling in war-time requirements, and would encounter grave transport problems. In other important raw materials, the position is no better. At the outside, only one-fifth of rubber requirements are satisfied by Buna, even in peace-time. Not more than one-third of the requirements of textile fibre are satisfied by artificial fibres, and in this the position has been worsened by the acquisition of Czechoslovakia. In non-ferrous metals, she depends upon foreign sources for all her nickel, nearly all her copper, most of her lead, and some of her zine, and would in war-time have adequate supplies available only of aluminium and magnesite. In timber, she is self-sufficient, now that the forests of Czechoslovakia are available for destruction. And in coal and lignite she is more than self-sufficient. The list, as a whole, is unimpressive. What are its military implications? We shall try to answer this question in tomorrow's article.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.