-12- of the tobacco, a third of the petroleum products, and one-fifth of the wheat we produce are normally marketed abroad. Certain sections of the country, such as the Southern States, part of the Middle West and West Coast, are particularly dependent on the export of their produce. A loss of foreign markets to the extent 50 percent or more would have most serious repercussions in large areas already adversely affected and might well require a complete reorientation of the Nation's basic economy at a time when other preoccupations rendered such an alteration in the economic setup extremely difficult. It is, of course, true that a greatly enlarged rearmament program would take up some of the slack resulting from shrunken exports, but it is doubtful whether the raw material and food-producing areas would greatly benefit from rearmament which would mainly affect the larger industrial centers of the country. As regards foreign investments, the total involved is estimated to amount of $15.6 billions* (compared with a British total of about $20 billions). Outside of Canada and Newfoundland where American holdings total [?! billions, or a quarter of the * As of December 1930 |