840.48/2607: Telegram
Colonel E. M. House to the Secretary of State
[Received December 1—3:22 p.m.]
210. Hoover has asked me to send the following message to the Food Administration:
“Please see Secretary Baker and inform him that it will be some days before international agreement will be reached in organization of food matters. Meanwhile the situation demands the continuous despatch of foodstuffs so that we can act, as we are still unable to make detailed arrangements for resale of food from army stocks, and I do not want to delay movement and discharge of steamers. There are now some points, such as Trieste, where food will be wanted in any event. I, therefore, would like for the present to order nearby steamers to Trieste and would like A. E. F. to receive and hold these stocks until Inter-Allied matters settled. If, for any reason, feeding of Austria should not proceed, the Italian Food Administration will agree to take over the stocks. I would like him to instruct the A. E. F. to act on this line and cooperate with me therein. Hoover.”