As a raw material for the production of these quantities of pig-iron and steel, minette is being employed more and more, for this ore alone can be obtained in this country in greatly increasing quantities.
The output of the other iron-ore districts of Germany is very limited, and the overseas imports, even of the Swedish ores, are so difficult to procure that in many places, in addition to Luxemburg and Lorraine, minette at the present time covers 60 to 80 per cent. of the output of steel and pig-iron. It the output of minette were interrupted, the war would be as good as lost.
But how do matters stand as regards the supply of minette in this or in a future war?
If the fortress of Longwy, with the numerous surrounding French blast-furnaces, were given back, then in another war, with a few long-range guns, the following works in Germany and Luxemburg could be ruined in a few hours:
Rodingen ....... 7 }
Differdingen ... 10 }
Esch ........... 16-17 } kilometres from Longwy.
Oettingen ...... 21 }
Rümelingen ..... 21 }
Düdelingen ..... 25 }
By this destruction alone it may be estimated that 20 per cent. of the German output of pig-iron and steel would be lost.
But a glance at the map shows us further that, e.g., Jarny (the "Phoenix" minette pits) lies at a distance of 13 to 15 kilometres from Verdun, and that the western mining concessions near Landres and Conflans are not more than 26 kilometres at most from Verdun. To-day we are bombarding Dunkirk from a distance of 38 kilometres. Does anyone believe that the French, in the next war, would neglect to place long-range guns in Longwy and Verdun, and allow us to continue the extraction of ore and the production of pig-iron?
Incidentally it may be remarked that the extensive production of steel from minette offers at the same time the one and only possibility of providing German agriculture with the necessary phosphoric acid for the manufacture of the now excluded phosphates.
Hence the security of the German Empire in a future war imperatively demands the possession of the whole minette-bearing district of Luxemburg and Lorraine, together with the fortifications of Longwy and Verdun, without which this district cannot be held.
The possession of larger supplies of coal—and, in particular, of coal rich in bitumen, which is found in great quantities in the basin of Northern France—is at least as decisive for the result of this war as the possession of iron-ore.