The midland journal., 1945-12-07
UNRRA Test Of Sentiment
For World Cooperation
Faith in Ideal Necessary to Continue Work of
Allied Relief Agency After Reports
Of Early Difficulties.
BY BAUKHAGE
Netos Analyst and Commentator.

course. UNRRA has suffered great
ly from poor press because the
task it faced was well nigh impossi-
BILE in wartime.
The bad news, therefore, overbal-
anced the good news as far as re-
ports of progress on the part of the
active, contributing countries were
concerned. From the passive, recipi-
ent countries naturally there were
plenty of complaints. These "sins of
omission" were ballyhooed. The
other side of the story was not. 1t
was the sad and familiar tale Of
priorities, story many business
man can tell. Even when UNRRA
had money in hand for food re-
quired (although some of the con-
tributing members are very slow
to pay, the United States still was
a little less than half of its allot-
ment and authorization), it was inn
possible to get the combined food
board, which decided who got what,
to allot any to UNRRA until the
armed forces, the domestic market,
the lend-lease, and the liberated
countries who had money to buy,
got theirs. And even if the food was
available, frequently there were no
ships in which to transport it.
That situation has changed. Food
is now being delivered to Europe.
By Christmas it will be moving at
the rate of half a million tons a
month. But the memory of past de-
ficiencies fingers and doubt as to
future performance could easily be
used as an excuse to defeat the
measure unless one is really con-
vinced that UNRRA's job is so i'm
portant it must succeed. And there
we get down to the nub of the whole
argument. For to agree with the
thesis that UNRRA's objective is de-
sirable is to agree that the good Of
one is the good Of all and the good
of the other fellow is the good of the
us-''us" standing for the United
States.
It is easy to show that millions in
Europe will starve this winter unless
they get food from outside their own
borders. It is easy to prove that in
those countries which are UNRRA's
concern - the ones which were in
vaded and which cannot pay for
food - starvation will lead to dis
ease, riots, revolt-and death. And
we know that under such conditions,
nations turn to totalitarianiSm and
when that fails, to chaos. We also
know that unless we help tide these
people over, we cannot expect
to sell them our surpluses because
"you can't do business with
graveyard" Nevertheless the isola-
zionist would respond, what of it?
Let's stay in our own backyard.
Therefore, the voter, weighing
UNRRA's past errors with its fu-
ture potentialities, will vote for it
only if he still believes that world
cooperation is something worth TAX
ing risk for.
So UNRRA becomes test of how
well this belief is standing the test
of misunderstanding and disap-
pointments on the diplomatic front
which we have faced in the past
weeks.
We hear great deal about the
difficulty of understanding the Japa-
nese mind and many people have
their fears as to how we are going
to get along in the years ahead dur
ing which we will occupy the coun-
try and attempt a reconversion of
Japanese thinking as well as eco
nomic life.
Recently / had a long conversa-
ton with an officer who had inter-
viewed some of the more intelh-
gent Japanese officers captured in
the Philippines just before the sur
render. Several remarks of one of
these men Illustrated the difficulty of
reaching the enemy mind.
My friend asked the prisoner:
what did you think of our propa-
ganda?"
''It made us laugh" the Jap re-
piled.
''Be specific" my friend said.
"Well, you sent us leaflets saying,
Surrender; come over to our lines
and receive plenty of hot food and
cold water We laughed at that. We
had plenty of cold water in the
mountains. What we wanted was hot
water"
Water, to a Jap, meant in this
case bath. They bathe in very hot
water. That was what they wanted
and couldn't get. To the Americans
water means, after the heat of
battle, first, drink.