Evening star., 1944-02-13

North Africa. and which Lehman
also ran. OFRRO is now extinct.
A good portion of the remaining
$50 jobs probably will be filled by
people from other nations. The
British alone have more than 9
hundred suggested names.
Lehman is appointing slowly ano
that has caused irritation among
the Embassy groups here. But Leh.
man is caught by a time element
UNRRA can't begin to work any
where until the armies invite it in
and the armies can do that only
after they have mopped up an area
In the meantime, Lehman is averse
| to keeping large staff on the pay
roll with nothing more than plan
ming to do. He's trying to set up a
reserve force by getting agreements
from international experts to join
UNRRA when the work starts.
The complicated way in which
foreign operations are carried on by
the United States adds to complica-
tions at UNRRA.
One rub has been between
UNRRA and certain State Depart
ment men. The State Department
jitters stem from an incident which
took place early last year on the
IOFRRO staff.
An OFRRO report was being run
through State Department mimeo-
graph machines (OFRRO had no
such equipmentD when a State Des
partment official discovered that the
OFRRO agent was Recommending q
health program for the Arabs.
Now, the State Department is re-
sponsible for happy diplomatic re-
lations around the world 1t could
see no way in which the United
States could make good on such ar
Arabian program, and it did see
Arabian anger should we start such
program and then cut it short. The
suggestion never saw the light OF
day officially.
Lehman is surprised now to hear
the story. He says actually he's
getting splendid cooperation from
all divisions of the United States
Government and from the 43 other
nations.
Leaning Backward.
However. the opportunity remains
for the State Department to over
see UNRRA's work, although it may
only be a happenstance and unused
UNRRA cables go over State De-
partment wires.
But at this point the State De-
partment is leaning backward. Re-
Gently newspapermen assigned to the
State Department asked that
UNRRA handouts be delivered to
the State pressroom. Behind the
scenes State Department men wor-
ried lest it appear to the press they
were examining Lehman's releases
So an UNRRA messenger deposits
the releases in the State Depart
ment pressroom, obviously un-
touched by State Department hands
So far Lehman has appointed
the following top staffers:
Menshikov; P. w. Kuo, China
former Vice Minister of Finance, tc
head the UNRRA secretariat; Rob-
ert Huang, a Chinese internationa
lawyer, as assistant general counsel
Antonin Fried, Czechoslovakia, for
merly a board member of Skoda. te
direct UNRRAs industrial rehabil.
itation work; Sir Frederick Leith-
Ross of England, chief economic ad.
wiser to the British Empire, to rur
the European regional Office in Lon
don.
Miss Craig McGeachy of Canada
a first secretary at the British EN-.
bassy, and former League of Ma
tions staffer, to direct welfare work
among people; Francis B. Sayre
the American diplomat, as diplo-
matte adviser, and Roy Hendrick-
son, recently American war food ad-
ministrator, as director of supplies
Real Headaches Start.
Now, the real headaches are
starting. UNRRA's money is lin
ited-between two and two and a
half billion. 1t must be divided
among all liberated countries.
The Russians have suggested that
they already have liberated areas
They wanted to know if any sug-
gestions are circulating for helping
Russia.
Some one asked what areas. Pa
tiently the Russian explained that
they consider Stalingrad liberated
Lehman replied that UNRRA is
yet unprepared to handle the prob
lem. He automatically didn't add
that the Russians have presented NO
lists of requirements.
Their was the only delegation at
the Atlantic City 44-nation confer
ence which failed to do so. They
still have given no notion of their
minimum needs.
distributed by the Associated Press.)