WORK OF U.N.R.R.A.

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 4, 6 January 1944, Page 5

WORK OF U.N.R.R.A.

TWO OPERATIONAL AREAS

RUGBY, January 4. English has been declared the official language of the U.N.R.R.A. (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration) Council and' its committees. It was stressed at the first session of the administration that the staff should be international in character and selected on the basis of individual competence, character, and integrity, without discrimination of sex, race, nationality, or creed, and that it should be recruited from as wide a geographical area as possible. It is essential to secure the most competent. employees available and necessary to pay them commensurately. If it ,appears necessary to operate in enemy or former enemy territories, U.N.R.R.A. will do so only from such time and for such purposes as may be agreed with the military command or the duly recognised administrative body of the territory, and subject to such control as the military command may find necessary, provided that the Council of the U.N.R.R.A. approves the scale and nature of the operations proposed and the standard of provisions, and that all expenses be carried by the ex-enemy country concerned. The official report establishes a standard but flexible basis for contributions to the cost of the operations. The standard for members whose home territory has not been occupied by the enemy is an amount equal to 1 per cent, of the country's national income for the year ended last June. The amount is not an annual contribution, but a contribution to cover the country's basic share for U.N.R.R.A.'s entire terni of operation. As much as possible, but not less than 10 per cent., is to be in currency which can be expended outside the country itself, and the balance in the form of credit in local currency to be available for the purchase of supplies and services. METHODS OF DISTRIBUTION. As far as possible, U.N.R.R.A. will utilise the contributions approximately at an^equalrate and will not deplete its resources to provide aid in an area whose Government is in a position to pay. Under no circumstances will any distribution of gold or convertible currency resources be made by the administration to any member or nonmember Government, except for purposes essential to supplies or services. Two areas are denned —the European and the Far Eastern. The Far Eastern area is denned as "eastern continental Asia, the East Indies, the Philippine j Islands, Australia, New Zealand, and the islands of the East Indian and Pacific Oceans." The standing committee for the Far East consists of China, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, India, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and France. The membership of the Standing Committee on Supplies is confined to ; countries which are likely to be the | principal suppliers of materials. On ! this basis the eleven countries chosen were: Great Britain, the United States, Russia, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, China, Brazil, France, Belgium, and Holland. Others may be added as they become major suppliers. The Standing Committee on Financial Control consists of Great Britain, the United States, Russia, South Africa, China, Mexico, Greece, and Norway. It will recommend the proportionate shares of the administrative cost to be borne by each member, and will exercise safeguards against any inflationary tendency arising from U.N.R.R.A. spending local currency within a supplying country. PERSONNEL OF COMMITTEES. M. Paul Henri Spaak (Belgium) will be chairman of the committee on organisation and administration. The chairmen of the organisation sub.-com-mittees are: Sir Girja Shankar Bajpai (India), Mr. Hector David Castro (El Salvador), M. Kyriakos Varvaressos (Greece), and M. Jan Masaryk (Czechoslovakia). M. Vassili Alexseevich Sergeev" (Russia) is chairman of the committee on general policies. Under him the chairmen of sub-committees are: Colonel John J. Llewellin (United Kingdom), Mx\ Anders Frihagen (Norway), Senor Enrico Penteado (Brazil), and M. Jean Monnet (French Committee of National Liberation). Mr. Dean Acheson (United States) is chairman of the sub-com-mittee on financial supplies and services, and Mr. L. B. Pearson (Canada) Reads the sub-committee for ascertaining and meeting deficits in supplies requiring importation. The chairman of the committee on relief and rehabilitation policies is Mr. Tingfu F. Tsiang (China). Under him the chairmen of sub-committees are Sir Owen Dixon (Australia), Dr. Thomas Parran (United States), M.Jan Kyapinski (Poland), Senor Gustavo Gutierre (Cuba), M. Vassili Alexseevich Sergeev (Russia}, and Mr. P. A. Kerstens (Netherlands). —8.0. W.