Some optimistic but utterly unrealistic statements have been made recently regarding the possibility of continuing trade relations between Manchoukuo and Germany in spite of the fact that the German mercantile marine is no longer an active factor on the seas. The principal item mentioned is soya beans and bean products, and it has been stated that although the sea route is no longer possible the recent arrangement between Germany and Soviet Russia provides means for railway transport of this commodity so essential to German industry and food resources. Dairen warehouses are packed with surplus beans and bean products and this accumulation has become so extensive as to threaten seriously the economic stability of the country. It has been stated that plans for transporting 1,000,000 or more tons of soya beans, either in cakes or in tank cars, have been completed and the Allied blockade imposed on German supplies from abroad will be broken by this gigantic railway transport scheme which will tap the rich granaries of Manchuria via the Siberian route, From the very start, the fantasy tic nature of the scheme has been apparent, and reports from Changchun business circles, faced with the impossibility of transporting Manchoukuo's bean products, only add point to futility lof the proposal. Worked out over a period of months wherein Germany would be in a position to need the soya beans, it would require a quantity of rolling stock far surpassing Soviet Russia's present resources to transport even a comparatively small amount daily. Germany is reported to be willing to supply rolling stock with adjustable wheels in order to accommodate the narrow guage in Germany and the' broad gauge in Russia, but this would not amount to much, especially as experts estimate the use of 10,000 or more wagons or tank cars to transport this huge amount in relatively short time. Like Russia, which has withdrawn most of her railway material from the east to the west as a result of recent developments in Poland and the potentialities of the Baltic situation, Germany also needs most of her rolling stock in the west to fill army needs. Therefore, the soya bean export scheme becomes more and more mythical and the Changchun report that it is "rubbish" correctly describes it.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.