Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1917, Supplement 2, The World War, Volume I

Public Statement Issued by the Food Administration, September 21, 1917 ¹

September 21, 1917

[Extract]

In order to arrange for the distribution of the available sugar in the world, an International Sugar Committee of five members has been formed. Two of the members of this committee were appointed by the Allied Governments, and the men selected for this important work are Sir Joseph White Todd and John V. Drake, sr.,² both of whom are familiar with the sugar situation. The two American members of the committee appointed by the Food Administration are Earl D. Babst, president of the American Sugar Refining Co., and William A. Jamison, of Arbuckle Bros., neither of whom is interested in any way in the production of Cuban sugar. Mr. George M. Rolph, head of the Sugar Division of the Food Administration, will be the fifth member of the committee.

It will be the duty of this committee to arrange for the purchase and distribution of all sugar, whether for the United States or the Allied countries.³

1. The Official Bulletin, Washington, Sept. 21, 1917 (Vol. 1, No. 113), p. 2.
2. Should read John Ramsay Drake.
3. According to a supplementary statement issued Sept. 20 and published Sept. 27, “the activities of the committee will be confined to the importation of sugar from the West Indies and the United States insular possessions.”