The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-03-02

Peter Edison per cent OF al
the relief handed out, the remaining
is per cent coming from Great
Britain and other countries.
Theoretically, this 81 billion worth
of food relief was sold. The ex-
enemy countries had to pay cash
and did buy about $500 million
worth of surplus American wheat
for which farmers had been paid 81
q bushel by act Of Congress,
Liberated countries and the allied
nations that needed relief got food
on credit and that added about
$1.4 billion to the war debts which
were never collected. so In the long
run that post relief was pretty
much Of gift.
PANTRY OF DEMOCRACY
The total shipment OF foods to
Europe after World War I were 67
million tons, three-fourths Of 1t ce-
reals and sugar. Up to Jan. J.,
l943, Lend-Lease shipments OF food
to United Nations countries have
reached 4.6 million tons OF nearly
two~thirds of the first postwar re-
lief load. Less than q fourth Of the
Lend Lease shipments have been
grains and sugar, the bulk being
meats, dairy products, fruits--in
short. vitamins. There you have the
pr.llGipal difference, aside from
quantity, between feeding Europe
after the last war and feeding the
world after this one.
Heavy wartime drains on U. s.
food supplies, making this country
the pantry rs we'll as the arsenal OF
democracy, mean simply that when
this war is over. the United States
will not have the food surpluses she
had In l9l8-i9 and lead to q con-
clusion that feeding Europe after
this war Is O job for the United Ma
tons as a whole.
Although the United States has
set up an ambitious organization to
distribute food In Its Office Of For
eign Relief and Rehabilitation UNI
der ex-Gov. Herbert H. Lehman Of
New York, the Job of producing all
this food will require the combined
resources Of all nations OH earth,
and It Is to marshal these resources
that the Roosevelt exploratory con-
ference will presumably be called.
First steps toward the formation
of O United Nations relief and re-
Mobilization distribution program
have already been taken through
the U. s. Department Of State and
the Lehman organization.
Before the United States got into
the war, the British and represent
tatives Of 10 countries overrun by
the Nazis formed In London an In
ter-Allied Bureau on Postwar Re-
quirements. It's chairman Is Sir
Frederick Leith- Ross and the Or
ganization has become known as the
Leith- Ross Committee.
POLITICAL DANGER
China and the United States were
not included In the Leith- Ross Com
mittee, and any set-up which counts
out those two countries simply won't
count. Also, the Leith-Ross Com
mittee has no authority to do any
thing about production Of food or
relief and rehabilitation-it merely
collects statistics on the need.
It Is in the execution Of any Unit
ed Nations program for world relief
and rehabilitation that political
danger lies. The refugee govern
ments seated in London represent
only people who got out Of Europe
ahead of the Nazis. 1t Is entirely
possible that the people who had TO
STAY home and take It will have
something to say about their gov
eminent when this war Is over. and
the refugee governments may Or
may not In every case be the ruling
faction.
If, however, the food, the relief
and the rehabilitation of the United
States or the United Nations are
dished out through these refugee
governments. their mere action In
disbursing relief from outside sourc-
es will give them power to save their
own interests.
The question is whether to insist
that all American relief and reha-
Utilization be ladled out by American
field service men in postwar Eu-
rope where they may have a voice In
shaping the future of those, coun-
tries, or whether this problem can
be handled by international relief
agencies-the first STEP perhaps, to-
ward the creation Of an information
al police force which might main
tain order in this postwar world. Let
the isolationists chew on that one
for q while.