Show specter of starvation AD stalks liberated europe i li linger hunger u nger already rampant in many nations relief dependent on sacrifices of united states and canada by BAUKHAGE news analyst and commentator service union trust building washington D C the size and shape of the postwar food emergency which the world has been generally anticipating and fearing is now beginning to take shape As this is written in mid june a swelling cry is coming across the atlantic were hungry send us food in one days issue of the new york times there were special dispatches stating 1 that the liberated european nations were meeting in london to hear the facts of the world food situation from british food minister llewellin he had spent three months in canada and the united states surveying the world picture it was said that he would inform the delegates of the liberated c countries that there is in prospect a world shortage of tons of meat IG tons of fats and oils and tons of sugar A shortage that is in terms of what is required to maintain a quite frugal though fairly health giving diet 2 that european nations were b being urged to produce to the maximum in order to offset the lack of imports for their winters food supply 3 that the new food minister of france christian was coming to the united states to urge the american food industry to sell food to france I 1 4 that the bavarian food ration was down to the low minimum of 1150 calories a day the average american diet contains calories need Is acute in many areas the need for food is acute in many areas throughout the continent of europe the people living in german occupied holland have been suffering from outright starvation for months the physical condition of many wag wa so serious immediately following liberation that they were no longer able to digest ordinary foods the whites of eggs in powdered form were shipped from the united states to provide special treatment for these starvation victims britain also shipped to holland a special food consisting of solutions of predigested proteins glucose and vitamins in yugoslavia when supplies arrived and were being unloaded from the first shipment food was so scarce that the women brought brooms and brushes to sweep up the grain that spilled from the sacks of wheat when cans of beans were distributed to the people the yugoslav weighing officials were so careful in measuring out portions that it was common to see a single bean removed from the scales in order to give each person no more than his fair share in may the ithe office of foreign agricultural relations of the united states department of agriculture reported that this years output of food in europe will be the smallest since the beginning of the war it may be as much as 10 per cent under the 1944 production As the war has come along machinery is worn out factories have been kept out of most of europe by the lack of transportation and the shortage of m materials ate rials manpower has become scarcer in the final agonies of the conflict farm animals were slaughtered or s tolen stolen by the retreating nazis hence the production of the continent will reach the low point of this winter in the current crop year sharpening the difficulties is the breakdown of internal transportation to move what food is produced from the countryside into the cities and towns in the final phases of the war the nazis systematically destroyed railroads and rolling roiling stock behind them as they retreated the allied air forces systematically blew bridges and burst locomotives the result is that in greece for example there were for months no railway lines operating era ting even now when some of the trac tracks ks and bridges are repaired there are less than 20 locomotives and less then good cars in the country more are being rushed there but the railway transport will be far below even the wartime normal the highway service has disintegrated and the bridges are blown trucks are so scarce that they are number one priority in the relief schedules of and of the countries which pay for their own imports an worker in yugoslavia reported that he saw girls 12 and 15 years old carrying hundred pound sacks of grain on their backs for five kilometres kilo metres in greece women and children hitched themselves to carts of supplies and hauled them over mountain roads that were so full of bomb craters that trucks could not travel them million people hungry on continent in the face of this situation it is evident that as colonel llewelly Llewel lm told the british house of commons on june 13 there are a hundred in million hungry people in europe today hope for relieving hunger is ir in imports this summer and next winter will the imports be forthcoming from the world outside the best answer that can be given at present seems to be 91 not in the volume desired to provide enouf enough h food to bring the populations of liberated europe and the far east up to the prewar level or even to a rather low minimum level for full health and strength would bring the civilian food supplies in the major nations down considerably from their present level the british ration has already been reduced in a number of items and it was a tight ration before the reduction australia has cut down butter and meat rations still further within the last 60 days A good part of the answer to the plea of hungry europe and the far east depends on how much sacrifice the civilians in the united states and canada are willing to undergo president truman in issuing the report of judge samuel on relief needs in western europe pointed out that the american people need to understand the dire plight of the people in these allied countries in order to be prepared to accept continued control on our consumption here the coming months will give the answer to the extent and severity of controls that are imposed food foo d not money remains scarce relief for liberated countries is not a matter of financing the coun tries of western europe have their own financial resources and are seeking in vain to buy particularly such items as canned meats dairy products fats and oils and sugar the liberated countries of eastern europe which do not have the foreign exchange resources to pay cash for their supplies are receiving them from the united nations through has financial resources contributed by the nations the trouble is that supplies are not forthcoming in the scarce food lines at a desirable rate incidentally the director general of in a somewhat justified didactic vein has lately pounded home in his public utterances the fact that if fails to provide supplies it is not because of shortcomings but because the member nations do not come through with the supplies director general lehman says is not a with resources and powers of its own far from it it is the servant of the governments which created it there is one bright spot amid the encircling gloom of the food situation this is the fact that the world has plentiful supplies of wheat this member of the bread grains has been produced in bumper quantities for several years in succession by the farmers in the U S and canada the crops have been average in other exporting countries the result is that wheat is not even under allocation and the full amount needed for a normal diet can be supplied to the people of liberated europe but man live by bread alone for health and vigor you and I 1 and everyone need some fats and proteins in our diets will we be willing to cut down on our by the standards of europe brather rather lavish consumption of these things so that our liberated allies can come through the next winter with a minimum loss of health and strength |