Evening star., 1941-03-23
U. 5. 10 Ship Lard
To Ease Brifain's
al Shortage
Food Mission Nov Here
To Arrange for Other
Farm Commodities
BY BLAIR BOLLES.

ny bLAIh bOLLES.
The Federal Government has more
than 100000, 900 pounds Of lard In
storage which 1t expects TO ship in
coming months to England to re-
lieve the British fat shortage, IL
was learned here yesterday.
Robert H. Brand, one of London's
foremost bankers, is now in WASH
ington as chief of the new British
food mission, and the development
of arrangements for sending needed
agricultural commodities from here
to England will soon be under way.
The serious problem of feeding
the British people has now become
one Of the paramount aspects Of
this country's British-ai program.
Surgeon General Thomas Parran OF
the United States Public Health
Service, who recently returned from
England, and Secretary of Agricul-
ture Wickard are drawing up re-
port for President Roosevelt on Brit
ish needs and American ability to
satisfy them. Solution of the prob
lem depends in part on Congress
sional approval Of the surplus pro-
gram for another year.
President to Get Report
DR.. Parran and Secretary Wickard
have conferred three times within
the last week. Their report is to
be turned over to the President when
he returns from his fishing trip In
the meantime, Thomas Campbell.
the American wheat king, an expert
in mass production OF farmstuffs.
is in England advising the British
government on how the output Of
agricultural commodities there can
be improved and made more eff
cient.
No decisions have been reached
about exactly what the British are
to ask for and what America is To
give, but the fundamentals Of the
needs and the help-program already
have been established and resume
can be given.
The fat deficiency in Great Britain
is worse than in Germany. which
now controls Denmark and the
Netherlands, the chief former dairy
products fat suppliers OF England.
The British before the war also drew
fats from oilseeds and fishoils which
are no longer available. Butter and
lard are rare because the English
have never been large-scsle raisers
of hogs and milch cows. The fat
rationing is severe.
Dried Milk, Fruit Available.
Except babies, practically nobody
in England can obtain evaporated
milk. but the United States. through
its well-developed Surplus Com
modities Corp. program, has large
stocks of evaporated milk and dried
milk which are to go to England.
The same is true for citrus fruits.
We have more citrus than we can
eat and although whole grapefruit
and oranges would take up too much
valuable space in cargo vessels, dried
concentrate can be shipped.
The British need eggs and the
surplus program chiefs have been
storing dried esgs in great quanti-
ties. They need, also. bacon, which
formerly came from the Low Coun-
tries and Denmark, and We have
bacon for them. They also need
sugar, which is produced in surplus
in Cuba. Whether the British plan
to negotiate with Cuba for this
commodity has not been announced.
Few Refrigerator Ships.
Although the British would hke
butter from us, the small number OF
available refrigerator ships makes 1t
unlikely that we will be able to send
butter across. On the European
continent, lard is now used as q
bread spread and although 1t is
rather tasteless. it supplies a diet
need and its eaters apparently can
accustom themselves to it.
The outbreak of the war prac-
ticslly brought an end to American n
exports of lard. The surplus pro-
gram directors have stored 100000. =
900 pounds of it and the surplus
grows every day. American lard
production is 1890 ,0O0,0 900 pounds A
year and the present rate OF con-
sumption is 1.7O0 900 900 pounds a
year.
Food Stored for Worst.
AS for meats, the British now are
rationing everything except game.
poultry and fish. But the prospect
is slim of any assistance from the
United States for the time being in
this field. We have not enough beef,
pork and mutton to spare. Our ex-
cess wheat and corn could be con-
verted into beef and pork as feed.
but a conversion program of that
sort takes few years to develop.
And the same sort of program could
be followed in Canada. where the
Dominion farmers have to cope
with surplus wheat problem.
AS a precaution against the worst,
the British Government in 1898,
more than a year before the war
started, began TO store sugar and
wheat. The storage program still
goes on, in preparation for the day
London hopes will never come. when
not ship can get to England.
Those stores are inviolable until that
day. All rationing that has de-
veloped since the wars outbreak and
especially since the fall of western
France has had for its corrolary the
storage of supplies to protect the
English people should they ever be
wholly isolated.
The British Food Mission is still
in the embryo stage. Mr.. Brands
headquarters temporarily are al the
Willard Hotel. with the North Amer
ican Council of Supply and the Pur-
chasing Mission. Within a month
he will be moved into the British
governments new leased ONCE build
ing at 1900 K street NV.
Broad Financial Background.
Mr.. Brand is managing director
OF Lazsrd Bros, merchant bankers
in London. He is the third son of
the second Viscount Hampden. and
is now 81 years old. He is an Oxford
man, whose broad experience in fis-
cal and diplomatic affairs includes
an association in an enterprise with
the late Lord Lothian, Viscount Hal
flax predecessor as Ambassador
here. Both served In South Africa
under Lord Miner.
During the World War Mr.. Brand
was member of the Imperial Mis-
sions Board of Canada from 1918
to 1918, and he was in Washington