The remark has often been made to the effect that the German occupation of Denmark can only bring a temporary relief with regard to the supply of foodstuffs, and that instead of being an asset, may very quickly become a very definite liability. That is because Denmark has to import so much foodstuffs necessary in the production of butter, bacon and eggs, and that Denmark now coming within the scope of the blockade will be deprived of those essential materials. To maintain Denmark's normal production of butter it has been necessary to import 730,000 long tons annually of oil cake, bran, etc., from countries overseas in addition to the cake made domestically from oilseed, which has also to come from abroad amounting to 365,000 tons in 1938 and 296,000 tons last year. Thus well over one million tons of cattle feed have to be imported annually for the production of butter alone. To maintain bacon production Denmark has to have shipped to her from abroad about 350,000 tons of maize and barley, 50,000 tons of oats and about 300,000 tons of wheat and rye every year. These figures are on the low side because, relating as they do to 1939, they deal with a year in which there was a record harvest, ing abnormal stocks which are not now in existence. From these figures it will be seen that Denmark requires at least 1,700,000 tons of imported raw materials for agricultural purposes, in addition to which there is also the normal import of foreign fertilizers which are also now cut off by German action. The inevitable result of this must be that the highly successful industry which Denmark has built up for herself will be destroyed. The Germans are in no position to give the Danes the enormous quantities of foodstuffs required for agricultural purpose, and though for the time being some relief from the blockade will be had by slaughtering off the cattle which can no longer be fed, the time must come when all the cattle and pigs which Denmark will be able to support will be that small proportion which the ordinary harvests of the country would normally feed. That in turn is likely to be decreased, for the Germans may be confidently depended upon to reduce the Danes to the same rations as those given to their own people, which means that the surplus crops will go to help swell the German stores. That this will not be great is patent, but the fact that Germany is bound sooner or later to have a starving Denmark ori her hands is not a matter with which the leaders of the Reich, in their callousness, are likely to concern themselves.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.