The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1938-06-10
GERMAN Arms
WORKS MOVED
TO INTERIOR
Military Solidarity Aim Of
e ALLEGATION in Austria,
Near Leipzig
Rv EDWARD BEATTIE
1r.;,.j Press Staff Correspondent

BERLIN, June 10. (UP)-A
vast system of inland waterways,
designed to provide easy transfer
of freight and raw materials from
one section of the Reich to an
other, is an integral part in Ger
many's present program OF real
locating industry to districts less
vulnerable in time of war.
The re-allocation scheme has
been in progress for three or four
wears, but it received added impe-
ins from the annexation of Aus
tria and the possibilities provided
thereby. u.
Now Field Marshal Hermann
Goering, car of the four-year
plan. has begun a series of huge
projects designed eventually to
remove the weight of the iron and
steel foundry industry from the
Ruhr, where it is virtually within
range of French guns. to districts
in Austria where the iron can be
smelted at the mines.
Similarly great arms works are
springing up near Halle and Leip-
zig In eastern Germany, synthetic
gasoline distilleries there and in
other districts to the south, and
other vital industries are being
transplanted bodily or in part to
districts farther removed from
danger. of attack.
TO USE WATERWAYS
Since these districts, however,
are generally far from the source
of supply, some form of cheap
and steady transportation is nee
essary. In the iron industry, coal
must be imported. 1t is needed
for the synthetic motor fuels as
well. Other essential raw material
elements must flow in steady
stream to the mills.
Here the waterways enter the
picture. In many cases they are
already in existence, the result of
several generations of develop
ment. But most of the old canals
and river channels are too shall
low for heavy water traffic, and
much additional dredging must be
done. When the scheme is conf
pleted in 1915 to 1850, the stand
ard barge for German canals will
hold 900 tons Of cargo, and this
requires depth of approximately
eight feet.
Most important link in the in
land waterways scheme is the So
called Mittelland Canal, running
across Germany from the Rhine
to the Elbe water system, and
stretching eastward toward Sllesla
via the so-called Mark Canals al
ready in steady use around Ber-
lin. This gigantic work, already
completed from Duisburg on the
Rhine to point well east of Han
over, would make it possible to
bring Ruhr coal to Berlin, Mag
deburg and Leipzig, key points in
the industrial re-allocation plan.
NEED EAST.WEST CHANNEL
Since the main German rivers,
the Rhine, lbe, Oder and Weser,
all run roughly north and south
it. is most important to develop
such an east-west waterway as the
Mittelland, not only to bring Ruhr
products to the eastern Reich, but
also for cheap transport of prod
ucts which arrive in Germany at
the busy ports of Hamburg and
Bremen.
A second item in the program
is reconstruction and enlargement
of the canal from Gleiwitz to
Cosel in Silesia, thus making the
Oder available for transportation
of Silesian products. Third comes
Improvement of the Elbe from
Hamburg to the mouth Of the
Saale river; fourth, re-canaliza-
ton of the Saale to provide trans
portation from Leipzig to the
Elbe, and fifth, the construction
of an extensive inland harbor at
Leipzig.
LOCKS ARE NECESSARY
The general flatness Of north
ern Germany lends itself to canal
izaztion, but even so, at many