FOREIGN TRADE: By Bomb & Shell

In 112 foreign countries, U.S. citizens own industrial plants, oil refineries, plantations, mines and other properties, in which they have invested $13.3 billion. But by last week, when the National Foreign Trade Council released a tabulation of these investments by countries, a lot of the value had gone. The N.F.T.C. listed nearly $4 billion of U.S. property in Axis, or Axis-controlled countries, of which $1.3 billion was in Germany, $90 million in Japan.

How much could still be salvaged was anybody’s guess.

¶ General Motors Corp. slashed $46.9 million off its overseas investments, which it had carried at a book value of $96.5 million in 1941. Biggest G.M. write-off was the $35 million G.M.-owned Adam Opel A.G. auto and truck manufacturing works at Rüsselsheim, Germany. No G.M. official has any authentic information about the damage done to Opel when the R.A.F. heavily bombed the plant twice last summer. But the obvious conclusion was that the damage reports by bomber pilots satisfied the economic warfare experts in London who had Opel marked for a knockout.

¶ Ford Motor Co. plants in Antwerp and Passy (France) were badly damaged by Allied bombs. Ford plants in Yokohama and Shanghai are likely to be more rubble before Fordmen see them again.

¶ Chrysler Corp.’s once bustling assembly plant at Antwerp was gutted by fires set by the Germans before they pulled out. Chrysler now carries the plant at $1 value.

¶ The $5 million International Telephone & Telegraph Corp. manufacturing plant in Budapest is assumed destroyed.

¶ A few minutes before the Japs arrived, Standard Oil Co. (N.J.) engineers had blown up its $30 million refinery at Palembang, Sumatra.

¶ In Shanghai the Japs took over the light and power plant owned by American & Foreign Power Co., Inc. Recently the United Press in Chungking reported a rumor that the Japs now plan to dismantle the $20 million plant and haul it away to their stronghold in Manchuria.

Safety with Dividends. As U.S. investors in foreign properties took their losses, foreign investors who had their money safely cached in the U.S. cheerfully watched the skyrocketing advance in the value of their dividend-paying securities and unbombed real estate. In 1941 citizens of foreign countries whose funds were blocked had $8.5 billion in the U.S. In addition, United Nations citizens have amassed huge dollar balances, invested them wisely in the U.S.

Thus in the final settling of accounts, U.S. investments abroad may be worth considerably less than foreign investments in the U.S., and the gold hoard in Fort Knox may begin its world travels again.