UNRRA AID

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 August 1946, Page 7

UNRRA AID

CONFERENCE STRESSES CONTINUED NEED CONDITIONS IN EUROPE (Rec. 10.30 a.m.) GENEVA, Aug. 8. Speakers from five European countries receiving UNRRA aid,— Czechoslovakia, Poland, Greece, Jugoslavia and Austria—urged at a plenary meeting of the UNRRA conference that international relief in Europe should continue in 1947. The leader of the Czech delegation, Vaclav Maj er, Minister of Food, expressing concern at the cessation of UNRRA activities, said his country deficit for 1947 was expected to be about £45,000,000. He' warned against endangering the results already achieved by assistance from UNRRA. Hilary Mine, Polish Minister of Industry, said that the end of UNRRA’s activities would be the prelude to a great economic disturbance, increase black markets, and cause a rise m prices generally and social instability. Professor Zenophon Zolotes, Greek representative at UNRRA Washington headquarters, calimed it was difficult to believe that any country, was in a more desperate position than Greece. If UNRRA relief ended, its sudden removal would mean a return to starvation and despair and would risk Greece falling back into a state of chronic incapacity to recover. . China’s representative, Dr. Om Li, suggested that the United Nations members should contribute to a common fund to meet the needs of future disasters. Jugoslavia’s delegate, Vosislav Saventic, said his country’s deficit next year would be about £76,000,000, and the harvest was threatened by continued drought. The Austrian representative, Karl Schuler, said Austria needed £52,000,000 for food supplies in 1947 and rehabilitation ot the country was not yet tackled.