868.48/3662
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs (Alling)83
We have now begun to receive, principally through our Legation at Stockholm, reports regarding the operation of the Greek relief scheme which indicate that the Relief Commission in Greece is tackling an enormous task with reassuring thoroughness and has made rapid progress in building up an effective control organization.
The Commission is composed exclusively of Swedes and Swiss, under the Presidency of Mr. Paul Mohn,456 Swedish governmental official, and delegate of the Swedish Red Cross. It has 550 carefully selected employees. Though the Greek members of the old IECC84 organization have been eliminated, an advisory committee of outstanding Greeks is being formed. Four offices have been created, each headed by a member of the Commission:
- 1.
- Distribution Service.
- 2.
- Documentation and Coordination.
- 3.
- Transport Service.
- 4.
- Medical and Children’s Service.
Mr. Swen Allard, Swedish Chargé at Athens, carries on negotiations with the Axis authorities and works actively with the Commission. The local Greek authorities have been cooperative, and the collaboration of the Agricultural Bank, which has branches throughout the country, has been particularly useful and effective.
For the distribution of bread in the Athens region, the Commission has taken over direct control of the principal mills and of the baking establishments, and has secured the passage of a law permitting it to close up any establishment guilty of abuses. Distribution to mills and bakers is well documented and closely controlled. Distribution to the public had to be on the basis of the existing ration cards, but [Page 172] great efforts are being made to eliminate illegally held cards. The total had been reduced from 1,337,000, as of March 31, 1942, to 1,225,000, as of September 30. It is estimated that 100,000 illegal cards are still in circulation. Daily rations are 60 drammes (about 7 ounces), costing 30 drachmas (nominally about 20 cents, but now negligible in view of the inflation of the currency), with supplementary rations of 40 drammes for certain laborers, notably in public utilities, and 30 drammes for invalids and tuberculosis sufferers.
The Soup Kitchens, which rendered such service to the poor during 1941–42, were a problem because of their invasion by persons of questionable eligibility. In October 1942, 600,000 persons were enrolled in the public soup kitchens, and 300,000 more in private canteens. To eliminate those who could and should prepare and consume their food at home, the Commission undertook to distribute directly to each person 1½ okes of gruel, flour and pasta in November and 2 okes in December, giving the individual his choice of taking it in kind, through the grocers, or in meals from the soup kitchens. This was expected to reduce the soup kitchen clientele to about 20 percent of the population (about 300,000?), considered a reasonable figure.
Of the wheat received, 96 percent becomes flour. The 4 percent of bran and millings are traded, respectively, for milk and eggs. This ‘results in a daily supply of 3,000 okes of milk and an unspecified number of eggs for children and hospitals.
The bread ration in the provinces, where some local produce is available, has been set at 40 drammes per person per day. Thorough studies have been made of local needs and resources everywhere. Distribution is accomplished through 1,600 local committees, with the aid of the Agricultural Bank branches, and under control of traveling Greek, Swedish and Swiss inspectors. In October one million persons in the provinces were aided, despite the almost insuperable problem of transportation.
Distribution to the islands has so far been on a very small scale and has been limited to those close to the Greek mainland or to Turkey, but negotiations are now in course to secure a small Swedish motor vessel to operate in Greek waters, which will permit the transport of supplies to the various islands.
Medicines are stored and distributed under control of the Swiss Red Cross mission, about 40 percent going to Athens–Piraeus, 20 percent to Salonika and Macedonia, and 40 percent elsewhere.
Mr. Allard declares that the occupation authorities have made no attempt to appropriate any relief foodstuffs and that he expects no difficulties on this score. While he confirms that Greek native produce has been consumed by the Axis forces in Greece and exported since the occupation, he has been successful in having these exports stopped since September 1, 1942, and in negotiating a plan for the implementation of [Page 173] the original condition No. 4 of the scheme, which provided for the reservation of native Greek produce for the normal peacetime inhabitants of the country, except in so far as local foodstuffs consumed by the armed forces and officials of the occupying powers or exported as bona fide surpluses with the Commission’s consent, be compensated by equivalent imports from Axis sources. We have given our approval to this plan, in close consultation with the British, Governor Lehman’s85 office and the Board of Economic Warfare and subject to a review of our position after three months experience, and it will shortly be put into operation. It may be briefly described as follows:
- (a)
- Substantial quantities of foodstuffs would be imported from Axis sources, and these imports as well as all the more important foodstuffs locally produced would be allocated according to agreed quotas for distribution to (1) the civilian population; (2) occupation troops; and (3) export. Foodstuffs for the civilian population would be distributed by the Commission in the same way as the relief imports, which would, of course be outside this scheme.
- (b)
- In assuming practical control of the civilian production and consumption in Greece, the Commission proposes to enter into the actual acquisition of hoarded stocks of olive oil, on the basis of the barter of wheat and other foodstuffs for oil, in collaboration with the German and Italian occupation authorities. While a portion of the oil thus collected would be allocated, by agreement, to the occupying troops, the Commission would obtain stocks for distribution under its control to the civilian urban population, which has heretofore received practically no olive oil at all except through the black market and at fantastic prices.
While the Commission’s own reports so far received concentrate upon the operation, rather than the results, of the scheme, reports from other sources (principally Istanbul and Cairo) indicate that the food situation in Greece has greatly improved since it came into operation and that the appalling rate of death from starvation, which last year threatened the entire Greek nation with extermination, has been definitely arrested.
- Addressed to the Advisers on Political Relations (Murray and Dunn); the Assistant Secretaries of State (Acheson, Long, and Berle); the Under Secretary of State (Welles); and the Secretary of State.↩
- *In view of the increasing importance of the Commission, Mr. Mohn has now been replaced by a distinguished Swedish jurist, Judge Emil Sandstrom. [Footnote in the original.]↩
- International Red Cross Committee.↩
- Herbert H. Lehman, Director, Office of Foreign Relief and Rehabilitation Operations of the Department of State.↩