The total available supplies this year, apart from substitute fuels ano stocks, therefore, amount to 3,000,004 sons from domestic sources, 1,500,000 tons from Rumania, 500,000 tons from atussia and anoiller 200,000 wns a most from Poland and Estonia, whicl. expor.s small quantities of shale oil—altogether 5,200,000 tons.
It is, of course, probable that large:
will become available li. rs. Germany's own production is steadily increasing, while improvements in communications migh. eventually enable Russia to make 4 much larger contribution.
Meanwhile Great Britain and France can purchase almost unlimited quantities in any of the worlds markets, and, with the addition ai Norwegian merchant tonnage, contro. nearly 50 per cent, of the world's tanker fleet, more than sufficient te transport all the oil they require. From the United States they can also obtain aviation spirit—which Rumania only produces in small quantities ana (Russia herself imports from the United States—and an unlimited range of other products. Germany will certainly be unable to obtain the highest quality aviation spirit, and even if she has sufficient petrol, may well be inconveniently short of diesel oil and lubricants.
Shortages in 1918
The position is somewhat that in 1918, when the Allies were using roughly four times the quantity of petroleum that was available to the Central Powers. Largely owing te this they had a numerical superiority in the air of three to one.
Inside Germany, industrial output was crippled by shortage of petro. and of paraffin for artificial lighting, whilst inferior lubricants causea damage to a great deal of valuable machinery. Even the German railway system—which in the early years of the war had formed the backbone of her offensive—suffered frequent breakdowns owing to the inadequate supply of high-quality lubricating oils.
In 1940 Germany is certainly able to conjure up sufficient oil for her most urgent needs, but, in contrast te the Allies, she must still conduct her war activities within the rigid limits imposed by the handicap on her supplies of oil.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.