RECOVERY IN EUROPE

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25246, 26 July 1947, Page 9

RECOVERY IN EUROPE

AMERICA’S CAPACITY TO CONTRIBUTE COMMITTEE TO REPORT BY OCTOBER (Rec. 7.40 p.m.) LONDON. July 24. The United States Secretary of Commerce (Mr Averell Harriman) announced in Washington to-day that October 1 had been set as the deadline for the delivery to the President of a complete report on how much the United States can afford to contribute to European reconstruction under the Marshall plan. The report will come from a nonpartisan committee appointed by Mr Truman, and will be put alongside the report expected in September from the European countries meeting at Paris. The final blueprint will be produced from the two reports. Thus, the final plan will probably not be ready for Congressional ac'ion before November at the earliest. Mr Harriman said that the survey would detail the products which the United States could spare not only for Europe but for ordinary trading with areas such as South America and the Far East. Even the foreign trade requirements of the nations which had rejected the Marshall plan, including Russia and its satellites, would be considered. The committee would consider, for example, what Russia could sell or contribute through regular trade channels to European recovery. Mr Harriman, who recently returned from a trip to western Europe, added that food and coal were tha major requirements of overseas help—food to strengthen the people and coal to prime the pump of industry. In Paris to-day, the Committee of European Co-operation approved five questionnaires prepared by the conference’s technical committee and fixed August 3 as the day when the participating nations are expected to supply the Information requested in the questionnaires. The technical committee reached agreement on the content of the questionnaires after only three days’ discussion.