RELIEF FOR THE WAR-DEVASTATED

Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 14, 11 October 1944, Page 6

RELIEF FOR THE WAR-DEVASTATED

The arrival in New Zealand of two United States, members of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration for discussions with the Government on questions related to the postwar relief of countries devastated by the war, directs attention to a task of great importance and urgency. This task, fraught with difficulties the measure of which cannot be estimated in advance, has been accepted by the United Nations as a moral and humanitarian obligation. It has already been widely publicized, but with the multitude of major happenings arising out of the war, and people’s attention concentrated mainly upon the battlefields, immediate post-war problems such as this may be apt to slip to the back of the mind as something to occupy closer attention at a later stage. . Actually, the relief of devastated areas is a task which must, in the nature of the case, be launched upon before the war ends. Help must follow closely upon the heels of the advancing forces of the United Nations who are clearing the enemy out of these areas. As has been pointed out, the primary purpose of the U.N.R.R.A. organization is immediate relief in the way of food, clothing, and other primary essentials, the provision of health services, and the restoration or organization of such necessities of community life as water supply, sanitation, and so on. The job in hand is to tide the liberated peoples over the difficult period from absolute impoverishment of everything needed to make human existence possible, to conditions that will enable them to recover both their health and their social stability, and give them a fresh start. When this task is completed it will be the responsibility of other organizations to take over the work of economic reconstruction. Until it is completed, New Zealand stands in with others of the United Nations group in a general commitment for the pooling of resources to help the afflicted peoples, each nation according to its ability. This country’s contribution to the pool, based on the latest figures available, said the Minister of Finance, Ml'. Nash, in his Budget speech earlier in the session, will be somewhere in the neighbourhood of There will have to be special provision for this, but as to how it is to be met there has yet been no detailed information. The presence here of two United States members of U.N.N.R.A. makes it desirable that this information should now be forthcoming. Our contribution, apparently, is to take the form of trained personnel as well as of money or kind. Mr. Osborne, the senior member of the delegation, has made some reference to this which further emphasizes the need for fuller information as to the Government’s intentions.