File No. 103.97/296

The Food Administrator’s Secretary ( Strauss) to the Acting Food Administrator ( Rickard)1

[Telegram]

229. Please give following joint resolution of the Food Controllers of the United States, France, Italy and Great Britain wide publicity:

Resolved, that while the increased production of the United States renders it possible to relax some of the restrictions, which have been [Page 557] borne with peculiar hardship upon all our peoples, yet it is absolutely necessary that rigid economy and elimination of waste in the consumption and handling of all foodstuffs, as well as increased production, should be maintained throughout the European Allied countries and in North America. It is only by such economy and elimination of waste that the transportation of the necessary men and supplies from North America to the European front can be accomplished and that stocks of foodstuffs can be built up in North America as an insurance against the ever present danger of harvest failure and the possible necessity for large and emergency drafts to Europe. We cannot administer the food problem on the basis of one year’s war. We must prepare for its long continuance if we are to insure absolute victory.

Strauss
  1. Transmitted by the Ambassador in Great Britain (No. 654) to the Secretary of State, for Rickard.