FAR EAST RELIEF

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21633, 9 February 1945, Page 5

FAR EAST RELIEF

' UNRRA CONFERENCE NINE NATIONS INVOLVED THREE MAJOR PROBLEMS (By Telegraph—Brass Assn.—Copyright.; (Special Australian Correspondent). 1 (10 a.m.) SYDNEY, Feb. 9 The most important internntiom' conference ever held in Australia will begin at Lapstone, New Soi'r-n Wales, next week. It. is the first meeting of delegates on the Far Fast committee of the United Nations’ Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. The representatives of nine Governments directly concerned will consider ways and means of alleviating the ravages of war in countr.es peopled by one half of the world’s population. Seventy delegates will attend from the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, New Zealand, India, China, Netherlands, France and Philippines. General MacArthur and Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten. chiefs of the South-west Pacific and South-east Asia commands respectively, will each send three representatives. Large staffs will accompany the delegates. Prominent personalities at the conference will include: Its chairman. Dr. Triang Ting Foo, China, who was in turn history professor, cditcr. author and Chinese Ambassador to Russia, and chief of the political bureau of China’s Executive Council before being appointed chairman •’ IINRAA’s Far Eastern committee; F ! - Paul Butler, United Kingdom, who holds the diplomatic rank of Minister; M. P. A. Kerstcns, Netherlands recently appointed commissioner for the Netherlands East Indies in Holland; Dr. 11. V. Evatt, Minister o! External Affairs, will lead the Australian delegation. First Essay in Co-operation "UNRRA is the first essay into international co-operation in the post-war world, and it is most important that it should be successful." said'Sir Paul Butler, in indicating r the work of the conference. "Were 1 it to fail, there would be a genera! | loss of faith by the people of all S countries in international co-oper:T----5 tion.” S Plans for immediate relief in the | Philippines following General Mao I Arthur’s entry into Manila will be l formulated at the conference. The | unexpected pace of the Pacific war 3 has posed the need for urgent action, | and the conference delegates and staffs are faced with weeks of concentrated work. Discussing the general lines which UNRRA's rehabilitation policy in tlm Far East would follow. Sir Paul Butler suggested that its major purpose must be the re-establishment of China. Britain and the United States were cardinally interested in seeing a strong and united China. The first problem in liberated East Asia would be to provide its teeming millions with rice. The three great rice-pro-ducing countries, Burma. Siam, IndoChina, were in Japanese hands, and j it was feared that their- rice produc- • linn might have fallen to the level or local consumption, China’s rice production had also declined because of tire war. j Provision of Textiles j Textiles were the second problem. The Far East was largely dependent upon Japanese and Chinese mills, bn; i ail these were cut off by the war from their 'supplies of cotton. The equipment of many mills had been used for other purposes. Indian mills 1 were busy on military supplies. UNRRA must try, therefore, to reestablish the production of mills in the liberated areas. Transport was the third problem. Ships and railways were needed —but ships would be hard to obtain, and railways in the Far East had never been very efficient. Homes, too, would have to be found for million 1 - of displaced persons. Five technical sub-committees of UNRRA had been meeting in Sydney for the past three weeks. They had been concerned with agricultural rehabilitation, disolaced persons, health, welfare and industrial rehabilitation. Their recommendations to the conference, which will take over one of Australia’s best-known tourist hotels, will form the basis of the vitally important discussions to begin there next ; Thursday.