861.24/1412b: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant)
2609. For Harriman from Wheeler.89 At the London round-table discussion on the Russian food situation in which you participated, you indicated that lend-lease food shipments to the Soviet Union have risen to the top of the priority list. It was suggested that perhaps other factors than immediate urgent need for food are responsible for the Soviet emphasis upon such shipments. With this in mind I have discussed the matter with lend-lease officials in Washington. Their considered view is that there is only one reason that induced the Soviet representatives to raise food shipments to the top of the priority list, namely, the stringent food situation in the Soviet Union. [Wheeler.]
- Leslie A. Wheeler, Director of the Office of Foreign Agricultural Relations, Department of Agriculture.↩