Evening star., 1943-11-10
Relief Farley Opens
AT Atlantic City Today;
Seen Test Of Unity
BY BLAIR BOLLES.
Star Staff Correspondent,

i iAS tAA ob ShO USoU VI llllCu SllS-
position to cooperate in the set
tlement of difficult international
problems will get under way here
today with the opening of the
United Nations Relief and Re-
habilitation Conference
Spurred by President Roosevelt,
who addressed the representatives.
of the A United Nations and the
associated powers and the French
Liberation Committee at the White
House in Washington yesterday,
delegates of the anti-Axis govern
ments are gathering to seek a joint
formula for feeding, clothing and
providing medical relief for the
peoples living under Nazi and Japa
nese domination in the occupied
areas of Europe and Asia.
Flag of Four Freedoms.
The conference is to open at 4
pm. after the arrival here of the
various delegations from Washing
ton on a special train. The head
quarters of the meeting is the
Claridge Hotel. The United States
Government has provided a staff of
press relations officers to take care
of newspaper correspondents needs
but there is a prohibition against
70 tn RoNrc of
the Claridge above the conference
room
Assistant Secretary of State Dean
Acheson is to preside at the OPEN
ing UNRRA session. whose for
NAL basis lies in the United Ma
tons Relief and Rehabilitation
agreement signed at the White
House yesterday. The United States
has nominated Herbert Lehman
special adviser to President Roose-
Welt on foreign relief problems. as
director general of UNRRA, and
it is expected he will be elected to
the position tomorrow.
Mr.. Acheson is the American dele
gate to the conference.
Soviet Names Delegation.
Just before the conference opened
the Soviet government appointed
Vasili AleXseevitch Sergeev its chief
delegate with staff of II. The
UNRRA agreement is notable for
the fact that it bears the sig
nature both of Russian and Pol
iSh representatives, despite the fact
that the Soviet government does
not maintain diplomatic relations
with the Polish government in exile. |
Deputy Prime Minister Kwapinski of
that government is the Polish dele
gate here He is a Socialist. |
The evolution of UNRRA stems
from a desire on the part of the
United States to shift part of the
financial and economic burden of |
relief and rehabilitation to the
purses of other governments, and on
the part of the collaborating govern
ments to demonstrate their sovereign
Independence by assuming a share
of the cost of world relief. BY
UNRRA. in other words. the United
States rejects the role of world Santa
Claus.
The conference is expected to last
q month or more Most of the time
will be devoted to technical discus
sions aimed at the solution of the
manifold problems which stand be-
tween the simple expression of a :
wish to provide relief and the crea-
ton Of machinery for distributing
the relief
Some of Problems.
Some of the problems which con-
front the delegates are these:
|. How will the financial assess
ments for the various nations be dis
tributed? Some Of the governments
have large financial resources, like
the Dutch, and some are poor, like
the Czechoslovaks.
2. What agencies will distribute
the relief materials? The distribu-
tor will gain certain political ad-
vantages. Shall the exile govern
mentS be permitted to distribute in
the areas with which they are par
tiCularly concerned. or shall the re-
lief be channeled through other
agencies.
3. What sort of pressures will be
brought TO bear on the combined
food board to make available the
food stuffs needed for the relief job?
The board controls now the interna-
tional movements of almost all foods,
and its interest is primarily military.
q. Whose ships shall be used to /
transport foodStuf1s that need to be
brought long distances to ports near
the areas where the food is to be
distributed? The British govern
ment is. making a bid to do the
transport job.
Test of Cooperation.
A solution of the problems will
involve sacrifices of national self in
terest on the part of each power rep
resented. The disposition to CO.
operate will be severely tested by
whether the delegates try seriously
to meet the problems.
Some optimistic observers see in /
the conference tie prelude to the
development of world wide trading
system that would throw aside the
barriers to the easy flow of inter-
national commerce-the objective at !
which Cordell Hull has been aiming
since he became Secretary of State. |
The British delegation has booked
rooms in a hotel apart from the
Clarldge-the Shelburne. The ca
paclties of the British to assist in
the program are great, for the COM
monWealth, with special reference
to Canada and Australia, includes
some Of the greatest food producing
areas in the world.
Co-heads of the British delegation
are Sir Frederick Leith Ross. who!
has been collecting data in London
for two years on international relief
needs, and Col John J. Llewellin.
chairman of the British Supply
Council in Washington.