550.AD1/650
The Secretary of State to the American Delegates to the United Nations Conference on Food and Agriculture
Sirs and Madam: You have been designated by the President as Delegates of the United States to the United Nations Conference on Food and Agriculture which will convene at Hot Springs, Virginia, on May 18, 1943. I wish to assure you of the Government’s appreciation of your willingness to accept the responsibility of representing it at this Conference and to furnish for your information and assistance the following general instructions regarding the procedure which may appropriately be followed during your participation in the meeting.
The forthcoming Conference will be the first major effort on the part of the United Nations to approach specific phases of post-war questions. The eyes of the world will be focused on the Conference. Friends and enemies alike will view its spirit and its accomplishments as the measure of the ability and capacity of the United Nations and of the countries associated with them in the war to solve their problems. The Government of the United States has taken the initiative leading to the convening of the Conference and is serving as host to the meeting. You, as this Government’s Delegates, will bear the burden of giving vigor and substance to this initiative and of exerting every possible effort to assure a successful outcome.
With regard to the particular subjects to come before the Conference, the United States Delegation should bear in mind the conception of this Government of the purpose and objective which it had in mind in calling the Conference, as expressed in the preamble to the agenda:
“The agenda begins with an effort to ascertain the facts as to what are the needs of the various peoples of the world for food and other [Page 842] essential agricultural products, with due regard to different conditions and possibilities among countries. It recognizes that in the past excessive accumulations of certain agricultural products were in fact not surpluses at all when measured by the world’s minimum needs of food and clothing; that these so-called surpluses were usually the result of maldistribution and underconsumption. It then seeks to ascertain the prospects for so organizing world agricultural production as to enable the satisfaction of these needs and to explore the measures, both domestic and international, by which production can be enhanced and better directed in terms of consumption. Finally it examines the measures and conditions which are necessary to assure that what can be produced moves into consumption.”
Corresponding to this conception, the Delegation should participate in a review of the principal consumption deficiencies of the world in food and the other principal agricultural products. The Conference may wish to produce a report on this subject or to provide for continuing study and a later report thereon. The Delegation should seek to secure from the Conference a vigorous call to the nations of the world to recognize and accept new responsibility for the elimination, so far as possible, of such deficiencies, particularly in food, among their peoples and to concert their various national policies to this end.
Such policies, if adopted and pursued, would call for an expansion, rather than a contraction, of world agricultural production, and the examination of production policies and techniques should be undertaken in this light. This is a field for domestic action in large part, but the international pooling of knowledge, techniques, and statistics can make domestic actions much more effective and the Delegation should seek to have the Conference examine in a preliminary way possible means of international collaboration in these and related fields. The Conference might, if the preliminary results appeared auspicious, provide for the establishment of a commission to carry this examination further for later report. The same considerations will apply equally to questions of improvement in marketing and distributing facilities.
At many points the deliberations of the Conference will touch upon and indicate the interrelationship of its topics to other fields not immediately germane to this Conference. Among these are relief of the populations of occupied and war devastated countries, general international trade and monetary relations, international investment and capital development, and general policies for the achievement of world security and prosperity. While these are not considered appropriate to become specific topics of recommendation or action by the Conference, it will be not only necessary, but desirable to indicate in reports and resolutions the importance of these subjects to the attainment of the objectives of the findings and recommendations of the Conference with respect to food and agriculture, and to recommend [Page 843] to the member governments that they give joint attention to these problems at an appropriate and early date.
In view of the expected short duration of the Conference, it will undoubtedly be desirable to provide for continuing study and reporting on many of the subjects of the agenda, and particularly upon the coordination and expansion of existing forms of international organization in the field of agriculture and the possibilities of new types of international collaboration. It would appear desirable that, if such action is taken by the Conference, one commission with appropriate subdivisions should be established rather than a number of separate commissions. Such a commission would report direct to the member governments. This Government would prefer that the Conference itself should not contemplate reconvening to receive the report of such a commission.
It is anticipated that the deliberations of the Conference will be confined to the matters delineated in the agenda, but should it be found that the discussions tend to deviate from these lines or to involve specific commitments, you are requested to indicate the understanding of this Government that the discussions would be limited to the matters previously agreed upon in the agenda and that accordingly you are precluded from participation in such discussions. You may wish to report to the Department any questions of this character upon which an expression of this Government’s views may be imperative.
In the event that proposals are submitted which would have adverse effects upon the interests of the United States, you will, of course, give careful and serious consideration to such suggestions and will endeavor to arrange for their modification in such a manner as would in your opinion be in accord with the general interest and meet with the approval of the Government. Should any resolutions, recommendations, or proposals be presented which may be incompatible with existing legislation or with the decisions of duly constituted regulatory agencies of the Federal, State, or Municipal Governments, the Delegation may wish to record an appropriate statement of its position.
It is, of course, highly desirable that the comments and opinions of the individual delegates represent, in so far as possible, the coordinated view of the entire delegation. Any questions concerning the interpretation of these instructions and the position to be taken or the course to be followed by any individual delegate will be referred to the Chairman of the Delegation for determination.
In view of the technical nature of the Conference, it will not be feasible to authorize the delegates to offer any written or oral statement which might be construed as committing this Government to a definite or specific course of action or which might involve an obligation [Page 844] to expand Governmental funds not previously appropriated and allocated.
I am confident that you will keep constantly before the attention of the participating delegates the unswerving determination of the Government and people of the United States to devote the fullest measure of their resources and energies to the defeat of the common enemy, and to collaborate with the same vigor in the establishment of an equitable and lasting peace.
I take this opportunity to express again the Department’s gratitude for your cooperation in undertaking this important and responsible duty.
Very truly yours,
[For complete list of the American delegation to the Conference and officials of the Secretariat, see Department of State Bulletin, May 15, 1943, page 433. The letter from President Roosevelt to the opening session of the Conference on May 18 is printed ibid., May 20, 1943, page 455.
The proceedings of the Conference, in session from May 18 to June 3, 1943, were recorded in the Conference Journal, in sixteen issues (filed under 550.AD1/1064); these Journals have not been printed.
The summation of the work of the Conference by the Secretary General, the Final Act, and reports of three sections of the Conference are printed in Department of State publication No. 1948, Conference Series No. 52: United Nations Conference on Food and Agriculture, Hot Springs, Virginia, May 18–June 3, 1943, Final Act and Section Reports (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1943).]