FOOD SHORTAGE PREDICTED

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25274, 28 August 1947, Page 7

FOOD SHORTAGE PREDICTED

EUROPE AND ASIA SIR JOHN ORR SPEAKS AT F.A.O. CONFERENCE (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, August 26. "Millions of people in Europe will be worse fed in the coming winter and next spring than during the war, and there is little hope of a substaii-' tial improvement of the food position in Asia,” said Sir John Boyd Ort, Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, at the F.A.O. Conference at Geneva. The world faced a danger of famine in the immediate future. There was also a danger that, through lack of purchasing power in the consumer countries, there would be unmarketable surpluses which might cause an economic crisis such as occurred in 1929. Unfortunately, not all nations were prepared to give up the small amount of authority necessary to create a World Food Board as was proposed. “The United Nations has not fulfilled the hope that was placed in it. The world is spiritually sick, and the people are losing hope. Bold measures are needed,” he said. Sir John Orr told the delegates that they must decide whether the F.A.O. would become merely a fact-finding body or a great instrument in the creation of a new world. Sir John Orr is confident that the delegates from 50 countries attending the conference will formally agree to establish a World Food Council. Sir John Orr is said to consider that the coi ncil will require a world figure of cabinet or ambassadorial rank at its head. Among the names suggested are Viscount Bruce, who was chairman of the preparatory commission which recommended the establishment of a World Food Council, Mr Michael Pearson, the Canadian Under-Secre-tary for External Affairs, and Mr John G. Winant, the former American Ambassador to Britain.

It is expected that the removal of the F.A.O. headquarters from Washington to Geneva will be suggested by an influential section of the conference.

The London correspondent of the New Zealand Press Association writes that the monthly crop review issued by the International Federation of Agricultural Producers says that the European wheat’ crop may be 10 per cent, below the 1946 yield and»substantially less than the pre-war average. This does not include Russian production, which is expected to be “reasonable” over most of the country but not up to pre-war figures. The prospects are poorest in western Europe, but the outlook in the Scandinavian countries is also less favourable than was expected. The Canadian crop is expected to exceed last year’s yield by only 8.000,000 bushels, but the United States still expects to be able to export over 500.000.000 bushels.

Little is known of the Argentine position, but the probable export figure is given as 192,000,000 bushels.