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"Frankly, there will have to be further restrictions. In many cases, they are bound to be drastic."
In Time? As was evidenced once more by last week's speeches and statistics, the economic front is Front No. 1. The economic resources of the Allies are immeasurably superior to Germany's. Problem is, how to organize them, turn their immense weight on the enemy.
In the organization of its economic front Germany so far has a big advantage. She was on a war basis two years ago, partially rationed, regimented, ruled literally from soup to nuts by Four-Year Planner Göring. The Allies' organization has rolled along, too—shadow factories, contraband control, women's industrial mobilization—but not without the grinding of many a gear. With 1,200,000 men in the army, with armament factories booming, Britain still has unemployment. Thus the major question of War II at the half-year mark remained not so much which economy could take it longest, but could the Allies organize effectively for total war? In his speech last week, Mr. Lloyd George loosely said that Great Britain had 6,000,000 less tons of ships than in War I and that Germany was sinking them twice as fast as in the first six months of War I. His tonnage figures were away off, for the total tonnages available to the Allies then and now look like this:
1914 1939
Great Britain 19,200,000 17,900,000
France 2,300,000 2,900,000
British Dominions & Colonies 1,800,000 3,200,000
23,300,000 24,000,000
A 9% decline in the number of ships available is offset by a 20% increase in speed.
Also available to the Allies, by charter or purchase, are 6,300,000 more tons than in 1914, owned by handy neutrals (The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Greece). The United States Lines last fortnight transferred to Belgian registry eight ships totaling 65,900 tons, now available for British service. Together with Norway and The Netherlands (20%), Great Britain and France in 1939 owned half the world's tanker tonnage.
As to merchant shipping lost by both sides since Sept. 3, figures were:
Allies Germany
Freighters 114 22
Tankers 19 1
Passenger 9 5
This did not include the 178 neutral merchant vessels of 497,000 tons sunk by Germany.
This week a Nazi bomber swooped down on the British India passenger steamer Domala, packed with Lascar refugees who had been interned in Germany, dropped three bombs squarely on her decks. With the bomber circling overhead and (so said the survivors) spitting machine gun bullets, passengers and sailors who had not been killed by the bombs began dropping into the water, many to drown. Dutch and British freighters rescued 189 of the 295 aboard the Domala, which was later towed to port. The 106 who died made up the war's second largest noncombatant casualty list (Athenia, 112, Simon Bolivar, 100).