POST-WAR RELIEF

Grey River Argus, 30 March 1943, Page 2

POST-WAR RELIEF

PLANS FOR EUROPE. ' ’ LONDON, March 26. Plans for the relief of occupied Europe after the war now well advanced. The Allied Post-War - quirements Bureau has carried out valuable preparatory work under chairmanship of Sir Frederick LeithRoss. This committee has several sub-committees, on which New Zealand is represented. Mr R. M. Campbell/ Official Secretary to New Zealand House, is Chairman of the Agricultural Machinery and also a member of the Nutrition and other committees. Colonel H. A Reid of the Agricultural Department is’ Chairman of the Veterinary Committee, Mr H. A. Poole is on the Seeds Committee, Colonel ,B-. Myers on the Tuberculosis sub-committee of the medical group, and Mr Ronald Harvey, New Zealand Government consulting engineer is on the Inland. Transport Committee. The main organisation and the sub-com-mittees include representatives or the free Governments in London and estimates of their countries’ requirements have been drawn up varying in the first two months after the war and then six months, a year and a year and a-half. Priority is given to food, medical supplies and clothing. ■ , .. It has been decided among other points that the standard of rations now existent in Britain for both food and clothing Shall be regarded as the maximum allowance for the im mediate stages of relief. It is recognised that transport difficulties will add other complications to food distribution in the first and an organisation has been establ ’ s L ed to meet this. It is also realised that it will be essential to re oo ™* l ' tute livestock herds and provide adequate supplies of seeds, lmple ments and fertilisers. lor these tea sons the Agricultural Committee, of which Sir John Russell is Chairman, has produced a detailed report ecommending that provision should be made for over a million tons seeds, including cereals, .potatoes, pastures, and garden seeds, ine livestock sub-committee estimates that many million head will be required and that it will take five: or six years to restore herds to their pre-war level. The programme will have to include the importation ot large quantities of frozen and tinned meat and dried milk. Owing to the shortage of shipping space the importation of live cattle on a large scale is likely .to be impracticable, but brooding animals will oe sent .anu extensive use of artificial insemination has been advocated. The Medical Committee recommends that medical stocks for 20,000,000 people be prepared to cover the first period of relief, its basic list including medicaments to save and maintain life. . , Mr W. Nash was much impressed by the work when he visited London last year. It fits in with the organisation which Mr H. H. Denman is carrying out in Washington, g O W RUGBY, March 26. ’“I take this opportunity once again to make plain that we have no secret engagements with any) country, noi do we seek as a result of this conflict to extend our boundaries or increase our possessions,” declared the Foreign Secretary (Mr. R. A. Eden) speaking in Maryland, United States. Mr Eden said: “Our enemies looked t 0 this war to sound the -deathknell of the great association oi nations in the British Commonwealth, but nothing in the world was more unlikely.” Speaking of post-war prospects, Mr. Eden said, “We will find security and progress only by the greatest measure of co-operation, not within heavily defended national fortresses.' Common safety demanded that overwhelming force be brought to bear against the aggressor, wherever he might be. „ .. The Secretary of State for Air (Sir Archibald Sinclair.) explained in London why there have not oeen more l,odo bomber raids in Germany. At the time those raids were made, he said, very many of the aircraft used were medium bombers. Now there was a much greater proportion of heavy bombers available, and, while the 1,000-bomber raids ■ dropped between 1,200 and 1,500 tons of bombs, a smaller number of heavy bombers had dropped over 1,000 tons on many, recent raids.

. U.S. DIPLOMAT'S VIEW. [British Official Wireless]. RUGBY, March 28. A plea for a European Federation was made by Mr. Bullitt, former American Ambassador in Paris, in a New York address. “The obstacles which stand in the way of an integrated, democratic Europe are colossal. They can be overcome,’’ he said, “but only if in the immediate future ther e is created, both inside and outside Europe, a relentless determination by the Governments and peoples that there shall be a united, democratic Europe. One . thing is certain: From the end of Europe, to the other all the little people, of every nation pray that the suffering they are enduring may never come again. . “At the end of a world war a brief moment comes when men see truly and feel deeply that it must never happen again. At that moment the world can b e moulded for better or for worse. When that moment passes the world congeals again and it becomes too late to mould it into an image closer to the heart’s desire of all sane men for a just, durable peace. If a truly constructive idea has riot before that moment dominated the thinking of the peoples and the acts of statesmen that moment passes and the world awaits another war to bring that moment of opportunity again . ■ “1 believe we owe it to every soldier, every suffering woman and every starving child on earth to see that this time the moment of opportunity does not pass unused,” he concluded.

SWEDEN’S POLICY.

STOCKHOLM. March 28. “Our idea of a free Sweden is political'independence externally and also the right to determine our own internal affairs and freedom to dispose our assets," said th e Swedish Defence Minister addressing Social Democrats. “We - shall not isolate, ourselves but retain the right to determine In what manner and to what extent we shall participate in international reconstruction. We shall not tolerate beim’- forced into alliance .or conspiracies. 'We shall refuse to accept commercial principles and prices leading to ourselves or others being impoverished. Sweden’s peace-time foreign policy must also be based on this principle, which fixes the limits of our participation in international co-operations.