-2- Altogether, putting things together it seems quite clear that Germany will have a fleet of new airplanes numbering about 2500 at the completion of their present air drive. This ought to be about one year from now. This means that Germany will be armed in the air and under the protection of this air armament can proceed more slowly to build up her land and sea forces. Progress in these other directions is somewhat slower than in the air army, but a good deal is going on nevertheless, for example, two weeks ago I was informed by the export manager of the Ludwig Loewe company of Berlin, mm~ufacturers of machine tools, that they had some export orders, including one from Yugoslavia, for 30 million marks worth of machinery for making machine guns, that they are unable to fill because the German army authorities had forbidden the export of such machinery, saying that they needed themselves all that could be made here. The German firm was trying to get in touch with American machine tool manufacturers Pratt & Whitney, and eventually met a director of that firm who happened to be in Berlin at that time. The order will either go to this firm or to Vickers in England. From my conversations with the American aviation representatives it seems that they are able to get payments in foreign exchange for shipments of airplane parts, whereas ordinary business firms are suffering the most severe difficulties and in many cases they are practically embargoes on the import of goods from the outside. It seems evident that Goering has got the right of way with his air armament program and has first call on what foreign exchange the Reichsbank can get together. Very truly yours, Douglas Miller Acting Commercial Attache. |