When the Japanese took Singapore and the Dutch East Indies they captured 90% of the world's supply of crude rubber. Americans felt the pinch in tire and gasoline rationing; the U.S. Army needed all the rubber that could be had and more besides, which was to be produced in many new synthetic-rubber plants. Malaya as a rubber source was written off.
But all Malayan rubber was not lost to the U.S. Last week it was learned that a small trickle has begun to come to U.S. ports once moreĀvia Japan and Russia. Tokyo, saddled with a mountainous surplus, sells it to the...
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