The Southland Times TUESDAY, MAY 9, 1944. Help for Hungry Nations

Southland Times, Issue 25358, 9 May 1944, Page 4

The Southland Times TUESDAY, MAY 9, 1944. Help for Hungry Nations

DR Roy F. Hendrickson, deputy Director-General of UNRRA, was reported yesterday to have declared that between 60,000,000 and 70,000,000 people in Europe will be medically destitute, and that at least 1,000,000 will be in need of urgent help when the war is over. Those predictions, based on careful factual surveys, provide the clearest justification for the existence arid functions of UNRRA. Most people have noticed this collection of letters in cable messages during the past few months, and it may now be generally realized that they stand for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration — a title too long and clumsy to be bearable in any except an abbreviated form. But so far the organization, its purpose and composition, has not received all the publicity it deserves. Its initial conference at Atlantic City in November, 1943, was badly reported, and since then it has been mentioned only in brief and sometimes obscure messages. Like every other international body, it grew from national activities which coalesced into a central organization as the war covered a wider field. Its main line of development can be traced to the Inter-Allied Committee on Post-War Requirements, which was set up before America entered the war. Moreover, six months before the Atlantic City conference the United Nations Conference on Food and Agriculture had provided a first experience of cooperation. Practical methods of collection and distribution had already been tested by the combined boards which for some time previously had been allocating food, raw materials and shipping in accordance with strategic, requirements. It can be seen, therefore, that UNRRA did not have to enter upon entirely new activities: the preliminary work had been done, the machinery and the trained personnel were already available. What still had to be done, however, was to reach a unity of outlook among the representatives of 44 nations. The central committee, which apparently controls the ultimate power, first revealed a tacit acknowledgment of the the Big Four. Its members are drawn from Britain, the United States, Russia and China. The smaller nations were inclined to question this arrangement; but they appear to have been mollified by an adequate representation on permanent committees which will do the hardest work of planning and consultation between sessions. There is a committee on supplies, a financial control committee, regional committees for Europe and the Far East, and a number of standing committees to advise the council on specific problems. Finances are drawn from contributions by “uninvaded” countries on the basis of one per cent, of the national income.

Relief Programme

Relief needs, “whether or not payment can be made,” are to be “fair and equitable as between all occupied areas.” This provision is important: it sweeps away the bad system, used after the last war, under which relief was financed by loans which helped to poison international relations for many years. So far the emphasis has rested most heavily on the first “R” in UNRRA. The relief of starving peoples is obviously the most urgent task to be undertaken; but in spite of the careful planning there will be fnany difficulties. It was hoped, for instance, that reserve stocks could be accumulated at convenient centres. Unfortunately the extension of the war, especially across the Pacific, has placed additional demands on the food-producing countries. The difficulty today is not to create reserves for the future, but to satisfy immediate war- requirements. Even when full supplies are available, a tremendous amount of shipping will be needed to take them to the liberated countries. According to figures produced last year in Britain, total imports for eight European countries would need to be nearly 47,000,000 tons per annum by sea and 45,000,000 tons “by other means.” These figures have had to be scaled down to a bare minimum. It seems certain, indeed, that hunger will be known in Europe long after the fighting ends. There is a better outlook for medical relief. “Commando” units are being prepared which, with a chief medical officer and with personnel and equipment for dealing with 10,000 people, will be available to any Government which is rebuilding its own health services. UNRRA will have to organize the repatriation of millions of people who have been taken from their homes. Its work in education will also be far-reaching and important. Much less has been heard of rehabilitation. At present it seems probable that this function will be left mainly to national Governments. And here, perhaps, can be found an interesting and significant fact. International bodies do excellent work, and seem to have no difficulty in reaching a high degree of co-operation, when they are concerned with questions which have only the thinnest connection with politics. That helps to explain why, while the League of Nations failed in politics, it succeeded brilliantly in its subsidiary and purely non-poli-tical activities. To place rehabilitation on an international basis would mean some sacrifice of sovereignty, and there is no evidence that even the dispossessed nations are ready

to take a step in that direction. UNRRA is providing, to a certain extent, a pattern for world organization; but its scope is limited, and it is too soon to see it as the framework for a larger collaboration.