840.50/791: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant)
5795. Your 6124, November 2.55 Department approves Steyne as representative on committee coordinating estimates on requirements.
Work is being pressed forward actively here on a plan for the accumulation of reserves of food, clothing, medical supplies, and other essential materials and equipment that will be needed for relief and rehabilitation purposes as rapidly as territory is liberated from enemy control. There is a prospect that within a few weeks we may start to accumulate reserve stocks for future relief and unforeseen contingencies.
It is recognized that the transatlantic shipping situation will be even tighter when extensive military operations are underway on the continent. Consideration is being given, therefore, to the desirability of [Page 145] early shipment of a part of the proposed reserve to points near the areas of prospective need if proper storage and turnover arrangements can be made there and if tonnage can be secured for such early shipment. It will be useful to have the authoritative judgment of the appropriate British Government services regarding the availability of additional storage in the United Kingdom and the feasibility of holding stocks there. If possible the Department and other agencies would like to have for a meeting on November 24 a preliminary report on the possibility of storing early in 1943 fairly large quantities of foodstuffs and perhaps other materials. The details of our proposed program will be furnished as soon as possible as a basis for a definitive report on storage capacity and possible turn-over arrangements in the United Kingdom.
The above information may be given to the appropriate British authorities but should not go further at this time.
In view of the present concentration of work here on the prospective early needs of populations liberated from Axis control during the war, and ways of meeting those needs, it is suggested that you explore with Leith-Ross and other authorities the desirability of a similar emphasis in the works of the Inter-Allied Committee and Bureau during the immediate future, so that the findings in both places can be coordinated and appropriate action taken without delay. Our working committees feel the need of the best possible advice from London regarding prospective local supplies in areas that may be reoccupied, and strictly minimum estimates of what will be needed from abroad to supplement these supplies, bearing in mind the probability that transportation will be very tight and that only the most essential supplies can be delivered for civilian needs while the war continues. It would be helpful if such minimum estimates could be arranged in priority order indicating what should be included in the first shipload, the second shipload, and so forth.
As a guide to action on supplies interdepartmental working committees here have been attempting analyses of the prospective early needs. Their preliminary estimates and their proposals for the accumulation of supplies will be forwarded to you as rapidly as possible so that they may be studied by the Bureau and the various committees working under Leith-Ross.
The emphasis of the work in London to date seems to have been entirely on strictly post-war requirements. While that work must obviously be continued, we believe that Leith-Ross and the Allied governments will also wish to undertake now intensive work along the lines indicated above. Everyone here seems to be agreed that the responsibility and opportunity for relief and rehabilitation will begin as soon as the enemy is driven from populated territory and that there may be a very great need for such work over an increasingly extensive [Page 146] area before the war is brought to a formal close. You will recall that the draft of the Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (number 2, revised, August 13, 1942) worked out with Leith-Ross last summer would promise aid to the population of any area “immediately upon the liberation” of that area by the armed forces of the United Nations. Furthermore the statement which Leith-Ross was authorized to make to the Inter-Allied Committee in London regarding his discussions here referred to a relief program “which can be commenced as soon as the aggressors begin to be driven from the occupied countries”.
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