War salvage in Europe

[chris vickery]

I spoke with an old fellow several years ago that emigrated to Canada from England a few years after the War's end. He had worked for a salvage company. He told me stories of his employer being paid to haul goods to the docks to be put onto scows headed out to the channel. The scows were dumped into the channel. When I asked why they did this he had an interesting reply. His reply was that the Government of the time was worried that surplus goods would be harmful to the economy. Why sell surplus wrenches and tools when there were factories in Sheffield and other places looking to produce new goods for the country to buy. Many industries would not be able to employ a workforce without orders. Considering the influx of workers coming back into the workforce after their military duty, scrapping commodities was seen as key to stimulating growth.
I suppose they were worried that many unscrupulous scrappers would re-sell and that surplus goods would work their way back into the economy.
Probably the same reason why the Canadian Government left so much gear overseas. It was more humanitarian to give it away to desparate nations trying to rebuild and cheaper than shipping it back home.