840.50 UNRRA/11–1045
The Director General of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (Lehman) to the President Pro Tempore of the Senate (MeKellar)30
My Dear Senator McKellar: Your letter of November 3 regarding H. J. Res. 26630a has just reached me. I will, of course, be glad to come before your Committee at any time I am invited to do so.
May I again urge as strongly as I can that the Congress reach a prompt decision regarding the funds that may be made available now [Page 1041] and hereafter for the work of UNRRA. As I have already testified, UNRRA is now without available funds. Its work has already been curtailed. It will cease entirely within a short period unless we are given the additional necessary funds. The need is so urgent, the case of millions of human beings so desperate, that we can no longer wait in taking action without causing untold suffering.
May I again express the deep hope that the bill when passed will not contain crippling restrictions. Since writing to you on November 2 in regard to the Brown amendment31 attached to the House bill appropriating funds for UNRRA, I have given further thought to the matter and I feel that I should add this post-script to my earlier communication. I believe more strongly than ever that the enactment of this amendment would be most unfortunate.
The opportunity for public service offered me as Director General of UNRRA appealed to me strongly. I have felt that through this organization, created to minister to the urgent needs of survivors of a tragic war, the humanitarian impulses of the American people would find a fitting expression. As my whole life has been devoted to public service and to humanitarian causes, I need hardly tell you that, with a full appreciation of the manifold difficulties, I was not only willing but eager to play a part in this challenging endeavor.
As I pointed out to you in my recent letter, UNRRA is a relief organization dedicated solely to the purpose of bringing urgently needed supplies and services to starving peoples. On this account, I feel keenly that it would be unworthy of the United States to place political conditions on its participation. I have the greatest sympathy with the American desire to see the press accorded fullest freedom everywhere. I do not feel that it is proper, or that it would be effective, to attempt to impose this condition as the price of continuing relief. On the contrary, I believe the only result of such an attempt would be to impair the ability of UNRRA to perform the humane task to which it is dedicated.
Should we raise political conditions now not contemplated at the time we made our current commitment, we would inevitably place our own good faith in question. At the very least we would invite other countries to follow our lead, attaching conditions to their grants. The task of UNRRA has not been an easy one. Under these circumstances it would become well-nigh impossible. The United States would be held responsible for whatever suffering might be entailed.
[Page 1042]I am again laying my views before you because of my profound conviction that I do not exaggerate the gravity of the situation.32
Very sincerely yours,
[On November 13, 1945, President Truman sent to the Congress a message describing United States participation in the work of UNRRA and requesting the Congress to authorize a new appropriation of $1,350,000,000 for this purpose. For text of this message and of related statements by Under Secretary Acheson and Assistant Secretary Clayton, see Department of State Bulletin, November 18, 1945, pages 807 ff.]
- Senator McKellar was a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Copy of letter transmitted by Mr. Lehman to Mr. Gilpatric on November 10.↩
- Resolution regarding an additional appropriation for UNRRA. See Congressional Record, vol. 91, pt. 8, p. 10277.↩
- Representative Clarence Brown, of Ohio. For text of the amendment, see Congressional Record, vol. 91, pt. 8, p. 10283.↩
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The Brown Amendment to the UNRRA appropriations bill was stricken by a Senate amendment; see Congressional Record, vol. 91, pt. 9, p. 11462. Finally, a Joint Report, accepted by both Houses of Congress, proposed the following provision which became part of Public Law 259: “B. The President is hereby requested, through appropriate channels, to facilitate the admission to recipient countries of properly accredited members of the American press and radio in order that they may be permitted to report without censorship on the utilization and distribution of United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration supplies and services.” For complete text, see 59 Stat. 609.
Under dates of January 8 and 10, 1946, the Secretary of State circulated to the Diplomatic Representatives in Washington of countries receiving UNRRA aid the purport of the freedom of the press provision of the U.S. UNRRA appropriation bill for 1946, P.L. 259, December 14, 1945, 59 Stat. 609.
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