latviski
IV. RECONSTRUCTION OF INDUSTRY
In the Baltic States two industries are of outstanding importance, i.e., the timber and textile industries. The former works for the foreign market and the latter chiefly for the home market. In Estonia the oil-shale industry also plays an important part.
In contradistinction to agriculture, it is not possible to forecast the scope of requirements for post-war industrial reconstruction, since we have no means of knowing in what state it will be found at the end of the war. According to available information, certain industries in the Baltic States, particularly in Estonia, have suffered severely from evacuation and from destruction during Russo-German fighting in 1941. During the German occupation some of the industries have been liquidated in conformity with the policy of industrial centralization in Germany, and in order to compel labourers to go to Germany. Nevertheless the general condition of industry in the Baltic States is not as yet catastrophic. The principal export industry (timber), owing to its nature, could be speedily restored.
In this sphere reconstruction should in the first place concern itself with the export industries. To these in the Baltic States belong the timber industry and subsidiary industries, such as plywood, cellulose, and paper. In the pre-war years these industries in Latvia accounted for about 50%, in Estonia for 27% and in Lithuania for 20% of the total exports. Considering that the post-war demand for timber materials will be exceptionally large in European countries, the export of such materials from the Baltic States would appreciably help to provide funds for the purchase of imports. It would indeed be possible during the first two post-war years to export twice the pre-war volume of timber. It is therefore essential that the timber industries after the war should be restored as quickly as possible. Moreover, other secondary export industries, such as canning, shale-oil, glass, artificial horn, etc., should also receive attention.
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