Evening star., 1940-08-11

titles in those regions and there is no-
doubt that the supply will be cut Oh as
soon as the japanese flag is planted over
Batavia. We stand in grave danger Of
being deprived of two important necessi-
ties for rearmament: Rubber and tin. .
All Rubber From That Area. -
American rubber consumption in 1899.
amounted to $4,000 long tons. OF this
amount SIS per cent came from British
Malaga and 20 per cent from the Dutch
East Indies. The rest came from Indo-
China (about per cent?, Ceylon, Burma
and Siam.
These are official figures. In fact, how
ever. good deal of rubber listed as COM
Ing from British Malaga comes from the
small planters in the Dutch East Indies
Archipelago. They find it more conyerr--
lent to ship to the British colony, whence
1t is Wholesaled to the United States.
The consumption of 592, 900 tons is
mainly commercial In 1889 our rearma-
ment program had not become as i'm.
portant as it is now At the end of June
this year the total amount of rubber on
hand in this country amounted to 1853 pa
long tons. Only 28,365 tons were reserved
for national defense The rest is In the
hands OF manufacturers who are using
1t for commercial purposes. .~-
The vast rearmament program de-
mands huge quantities of this raw ma,
terlal, which at some future date may be
more important than the Fort Knox gold.
1t is true that the Germans have man
aged to use synthetic rubber. But there
Is a good deal of resistance on the part
OF the manufacturers to its use in this
country. They say that it took them 10,
years to develop technique for getting
the full value out of the milky LIQUID
which Is crude rubber 1t will probably
take them much longer to develop the
full possibilities of synthetic rubber.
Tin Situation Also Bad. -
The situation in regard to TIN is almost
as bad. Tin is not used, except indirectly
for national defense. The exact supply
on hand is not definitely known be-
cause the jobbers do not give out the
quantities they have. But the visible
stocks in licensed warehouses during july
OF this year amounted to IS $40 long tons,
with 2l ,629 afoat. Some of this has al
ready reached American ports, other
supplies are On the way.
Not less than "A per cent of this tin is
purchased from the British Malays. The
committee headed by Mr.. Setttinius has
ordered $4,000 tons from the Dutch East
indies, which normally supply only 10
per cent Of the total needs of this coun-
try. 1t will take time for this to be
mined and in the National Defense Com
mittee in Washington there is grave ap-
prehension that the japanese will occupy
these sources of supply before the tin
can be shipped to the West Coast.
The present situation is such that we
VINO have heretofore boasted of being
able to force any nation to her knees bv
cutting her off from our supplies of raw
materials may find ourselves with the
tables turned. The weapon which we
believed could be used to stop war-and
only few years ago this could have
been done-may be employed now
against us. And there is no doubt that
the japanese will not hesitate to use it
II they find 1t convenient to do so. We
are at present engaged in an unparalleled
rearmament program. We can be cut
on, as We could not have been during the
last war, from the source of supply of the
most vital raw materials. The opinion
OF those responsible for Americas re-
armament is that the Axis mowers have
no interest in seeing this country become
strong military power and will do their
utmost to prevent us from obtaining
what we need for our huge program.
The adherence of the Japanese to the
Axis Is considered by certain Washing
ton insiders to be the completion of a
ring OF steel around the United States,
Armaments these days are the teeth of
a strong national policy. A toothless
America cannot have policy of her own.
1t must be predicated on that of coun.
tries which can dictate because of their
military power. The eventual conquest
OF the sources of raw materials in the
Far East will weaken Americas teeth,
And when shipments of maganese from
Russia fail to reach this country either
because Moscow has decided that she
does not want to trade with us, or be-
cause the fleet of the Axis will not allow
transports to carry the precious minerals
from the Black Sea to the United States.
the situation will become still more pre-
carious. 'ta