Evening star., 1944-06-11

A6sC ucCn AOiIcQ Out. Large dHlOulltS
of food have been brought In from
America and the British Empire, notably
Canada and Australia. When foreign
food became more plentiful, the Italian
peasants brought out their stores and,
faced with a competitive supply, low
cred prices to reasonable level.
The two prime necessities In Italy,
according to officials here charged with
relief problems, are wheat and coal.
The Italians of the south and the
islands have plenty of citrus fruit and
vegetables, but have always been de-
pendent on outside supplies of wheat
for their staple pastos--bread and spa
ghetti. Great quantities of coal havs
been shipped to Italy from England,
while wheat has come from America
and Canada.
Rome Problem the Same.
The Roman area--by far the most
congested in Italy-will pose the same
basic problem, authorities say. Plenty
of wheat and coal are available. The
great problem is transportation prob
lem that is accentuated by the need for
moving in large stores of military sup
plies for the American 5th and British
9th Armies as they move UP the penin-
sula In pursuit of the Germans.
Naples is by far the most important
port-the only one on the west coast
capable of handling great ships-in
Allied hands. Before evacuating it, the
Germans employed corps of 1000 en-
gineers and sappers for 30 days to
wreck the city's public utilities and port
facilities. Wharves we're destroyed and
many ships sunk in the harbor. Army
engineers, it is said, have done an
astounding job in restoring the port to
usefulness, but the work required q
long time, and even now Naples cannot
handle its prewar quota of ships. This
has been an important factor in slowing
down the movement of both military
and relief supplies, authorities say. 1t
becomes even more important now that
the Roman area must be supplied
The port of Gaeta, near Rome. is not
capable of handling large movements of
supplies, and the next port of Importance
on the Italian west coast will not be
available until the Allies reach Spezia.
some 200 miles north of Rome.
One important lesson learned in Italy
which UNRRA expects to apply in Eu-
rope as whole is the advantage of
what might be called 'long-range" as
compared with "short-range" relief,
When the Allies first invaded Italy, Off.
cials here said, their only thought was
to alleviate the immediate hunger of
the Italians. However, they realized in
time that the long problem could
best be met by helping the Italians to
help themselves.
Aid to Self Suficiency.
So, along with wheat and coal, the
Allied Control Commission, which reqli-
sitions supplies, has been bringing in
fertilizer to make Italian land more
productive, insecticides to fight the pests
that prey on citrus trees, equipment to
rehabilitate canneries and machinery
to restore production in mines. AS a
result of this policy, certain sections of
Italy now are becoming elf-sufficient
again.
The main aspects of the problem may
be seen most clearly in topical form:
Hunger-According to a recent esti-
mate by UNRRA economists, the diet Of
the average American contains 5000
calories day. An emergency SUBJ
sistence diet includes 1000 calories.
Compared with these standards, the
average Greeg Greece is the blackest
spot on the European famine map now
receives 1900 calories a day, and in
Athens the level is down to 500. Such
a diet means, crudely, slow starvation.
In the government general part of Po-
land people are living on a diet con-
tanning from 500 to TOO calories a day.
In no part of occupied Europe is the
diet up to the norm required to preserve
health, and if the Germans follow their
usual "scorched-earth" policy as they
are forced. back toward the Reich, the
situation may become even worse.
Already, it is reported, the Nazis have
robbed the rest of Europe of its main
crops. In 1912 they confiscated 80 per
cent of the harvest in Poland and 70
per cent of the fig and currant crop in
(See RELIEF, Page C-30