800.5018/162
The Secretary of State to the President 1
My Dear Mr. President: There is enclosed a copy of a letter dated August 5, 1943,2 which I have received from the Honorable Marvin Jones, War Food Administrator. The letter suggests that representation on the Combined Food Board should consist of the British Minister of Food and “the corresponding food authority of the United States and the other affected nations”. I am in agreement with this suggestion. I believe that the problem of dividing equitably the limited supplies of food of the United Nations is of such magnitude and has such an important bearing on our foreign relations that the organization handling it should have the highest prestige and that its members should be in a position to speak definitively for their respective governments. I think that for these purposes the British Minister of Food and the United States War Food Administrator should be designated to the Combined Food Board by their respective Governments. In view of the fact that the Combined Food Board operates in Washington, it must of course be recognized that the British Minister of Food would presumably be unable to participate in all proceedings of the Board and would wish to designate a delegate to be generally available for discussions in this country.
The enclosed letter also refers to the desirability of expanding the Combined Food Board (on which, as you know, only the United States and the United Kingdom are represented) or substituting some other mechanism designed to permit closer relationships with other affected countries. I am heartily in accord with this objective, which has been given a great deal of consideration by this Department and the Department of Agriculture. In view of the large contribution to United Nations food supplies being made by Canada, Australia [Page 661] and New Zealand, I believe that it would be appropriate to invite them to be represented on the Board.3
With respect to other producing countries various factors must be fully considered to determine the desirability and effectiveness of their participation; this is a matter which I will be glad to explore with the War Food Administrator and the other interested agencies with the objective of making recommendations to you on the subject.
In the event of the expansion of the Combined Food Board as suggested, you may consider it desirable to name the Secretary of Agriculture as Chairman of the Board, in view of his intimate knowledge of the activities of the board and of the prestige of his office. Both Secretary Wickard and Judge Jones have informed me that such an arrangement would be agreeable to them.
Informal discussions on these subjects with officials of the British Government have been initiated through our Embassy in London, but we have not been advised as to their status. If you concur with the views expressed herein and in the letter from the War Food Administrator, I shall be glad to arrange for presenting them formally to the British Government. However, in view of the important bearing of the problem on the conduct of the War, you may feel it appropriate to discuss it directly with the Prime Minister.4
Faithfully yours,
- A carbon copy of this letter which accompanied the ribbon copy when it was submitted to Roosevelt was returned to the Department of State endorsed “CH OK FDR”.↩
- Not printed except for the paragraph quoted in fn. 3, below.↩
- Cf. the recommendation in Jones’ letter of August 5, 1943: “In addition I believe it would be wise to expand the Combined Food Board or substitute some other suitable mechanism for closer relationships with other affected countries, particularly those in this hemisphere. Substantial gains through increased production in South American countries might be anticipated if we were better able to negotiate with their authorities on the kinds and amounts of commodities needed for war supplies.” (800.5018/162)↩
- No evidence has been found to indicate that Roosevelt discussed this subject with Churchill during their meetings in August–September 1943.↩