EUROPE’S PROBLEMS

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 March 1943, Page 6

EUROPE’S PROBLEMS

CURRENCY CONFERENCE

LONDON, March 4

The “Daily Express” says: Reprei sentatives of the Dominions, the S United States, Russia, and China have attended a conference held in London between Treasury experts and Allied Finance Ministers, with a view to I straightening out the European cur,i rency tangle. The “Daily Express” says: The opinion is held that it may be necessary for Britain and America for a period after the war to guarantee currency. Other reserves have been looted. FOOD "SUPPLIES j WASHINGTON, March 3. Germany and the countries directly administered by her are expected to eat approximately as well during 1943 as they did in 1942, says the Foreign Agricultural Relations Office. “A considerable food stringency exists in unoccupied Russia, because of the influx of refugees there, and also of the loss of 40 per cent, of the best pre-war crop area. The total food supplies for Continental Europe, excluding Russia, are estimated as 23 per cent, below those of 1941-42, and 15 per cent, below the pre-war average. The main crop of 1942 was within 93 per cent, of the 1933-37 level. The potato and sugar beet crops exceeded 100 per cent, of it. Special significance is attached to a diminution in the 1942-43 production of vegetable oils below the previous year.”

RELIEF FOR REFUGEES

WASHINGTON, March 3

A British and American ■ conference at Ottawa to explore the possibilities of international action to relieve the victims of racial persecution and of political refugees has been proposed by the United States Secretary of State (Mr. Cordell Hull). The proposal is contained in a Note to Britain, dated February 25.

The Note, which does not mention a date for the conference, suggests that exploratory talks should be guided by four points:—(l) The refugee problem should not be considered as confined to any race or creed; (2) wherever practicable temporary asylum should be found for refugees as near as possible to the areas where they are at present living; (3) plans for the maintenance of refugees in neutral countries; (4) the possibility of finding temporary asylum in countries other than neutral countries.

The Note was published soon after the Assistant Secretary of State (Mr. Sumner Welles) disclosed that the United States will give immediate consideration to measures for alleviating the suffering of European Jews.