Enough to Go On

If any country can be crushed by the "white war" of economic blockade, it should be Japan. The general staff of such a war is Britain's Ministry of Economic Warfare (MEW). Mindful of how Britons had lulled themselves through eight months of World War II with faith in the power of blockade, last week MEW set out to disillusion them about their newest adversary. Their opinion: war with Japan would be a long, slow process.

Japan has been preparing for this war for years. She has stocks on hand, said the Ministry, for an all-out war for at least twelve months. Japan can probably mobilize another million men for action before it cuts seriously into her industrial production. Japan has abundant stockpiles of such key materials as chrome, tungsten, phosphates, copper, zinc. Most of these materials were purchased from the U.S. and Allied countries during the past few years. Said one U.S. soldier in the Philippines when a bomb dropped near him: "We sold 'em this stuff and now they're giving it back."

Elaborating for the Ministry, gloomy, balding MEW Chief Dr. Hugh Dalton declared that Japan probably has resources of food for three years, of oil for at least 14 months, of rubber for a long, long time.

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