Evening star., 1944-01-30

James M. Lands, the American Min
lister to Cairo in charge of Near Eastern
economic affairs, has come back to
Washington from the Nile to get some
help. He wants men who can advise
him capably on Balkan economics,
which will be vital subject for the
Allies when the armies in the Near East
strike at Europe.
In Washington Dean Lands ran into
a problem, because while he works for
the State Department, the advisers
would be supplied by the Foreign Eco
nomic Administration. The relations
between the State Department and FEA
have become increasingly strained. The
establishment of two new economic
Offices in the State Department through
Secretary Cordell Hulls recent reorgan-
ization was aimed at correcting this
weakness.
Secretary Hull has emphasized more
than any previous Secretary of State
that in the long run economics control
world stability. He has tried to practice
what he preached by his advocacy of the
trade agreements. Yet he has been
unable to adapt the department to the
development of a wartime economic
policy.
When the war was young and not
directly our concern, the State Depart
ment set up Division of Export Con-
trolls to cooperate with the Army in
economic warfare against our potential
enemies. 1t was taken out of the State
Department hands later and turned over
to Vice President Wallace, for whom an
Economic Defense Board was created.
Friction Develops.
The board became the Board of Eco
nomic Warfare-which became the
Office Of Economic Warfare, which now
has turned into the Foreign Economic
Administration. The theory is that the
State Department sets the foreign eco
nomic policy and the special agency
conducts the operations There has been
friction by every succeeding economic
agency with the State Department be-
cause those outside the department
think that policy guidance means in
reality domination.
In some quarters of the world the war
economic representative has suffered
costly snubbing from the diplomatic rep
resentative. Not long ago Cuba agreed
to use large part of the blackstrap
molasses for the manufacture of indus
trial alcohol, which is sorely needed here
to help along the war. Cuba has been
getting wealthy from making gin and
whisky. An DEW man in Havana tried
last summer to effect the same arrange
ment, but he needed forceful backing
from our embassy in Cuba and he failed
to get it.
The BEW, DEW, FEA struggled for
almost year against the slowness and
reticence Of other Government agencies
before useful agricultural policy for
North Africa was worked out which will
make that part of the world fruitful
source Of food for our armies in North
Africa and in Italy. Because of the
reluctance of other agencies to act
quickly and back up BEW, the 1s43
wheat crop Of North Africa was less
productive than the 1912 crop.
The nonco-operation between the
wartime economic agency and the State
Department was supposed to be halted
by President Roosevelt's creation of the
Foreign Economic Administration last
September Is. FEA brought into one
agency-although not under one roof,
because it is still scattered through II
buildings-the DEW, Office of Lease
Lend Administration, the Office of For
eign Relief and Rehabilitation Opera
tions and the foreign economic opera
tions of the State Departments Office
Of Foreign Economic Coordination.
Other Changes Made.
President Roosevelt built up FEA fur
ther on October 6 by transferring to
FEA the foreign procurement operations
of the Commodity Credit Corp. 1t got
the foreign divisions of the War Food
Administration. In the previous July,
President Roosevelt had ordered the
transfer of operations to DEW of the
foreign divisions of Jesse Jones RFC
agencies. The changes have been de-
veloped by the Bureau of the Budget.
After six months, Jesse Jones is still
holding on to the RFC agencies, Petro-
leum Reserve Corp, Export-Import
Bank and Rubber Development Corp.
The War Food Administration domi-
mates FEA because Marvin Jones, war
food administrator, is the American
member Of the Combined Food Board,
which controls the international move
ments of food. The result is demorali-
zation In FEA, which has about 1000
employees here and throughout the
world.
One result of this Generalization has
been succession of designations. Ber-
nard Knollenberg, who was in charge of
lease-lend, has gone back to Yale as
librarian. Murray Latimer, who ran
the liberated areas" division, has re-
turned to the Railroad Retirement