840.50 UNNRA/12–345
The Director of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (Lehman) to Colonel C. Tyler Wood, Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State (Clayton)
Dear Colonel Wood: I have your letter of December 1st concerning supplies for Italy.
As you know, Italy, as an ex-enemy country, has not been among the countries for which UNRRA has had responsibility. At the meeting of the UNRRA Council in London in August 1945, however, on motion of the United States delegate, it was agreed that Italy might be considered eligible for relief and rehabilitation supplies from UNRRA and it was understood that shipments to Italy were [Page 1046] to be financed from funds acquired from a second one percent contribution.43
In view of the necessity for supplies in Italy during the critical winter months and the termination of the Army-FEA program in December, I informed the Central Committee of UNRRA in November that I would make available up to $60 million worth of supplies for Italy if the $550 million appropriation, due under the first one percent contribution, were made available. I gave this assurance not because Italy was an UNRRA responsibility, but in order that there might not be a break in the supply line with consequent misery and starvation in that country.
UNRRA is faced, however, with a very grave situation. The Congressional delay in acting upon the $550 million appropriation has already necessitated cuts in our shipping program for December and January. We have simply not had the funds to carry on our functions properly and even if Congress makes available the $550 million by December 10th—the date which you mention as a deadline—it will be extremely difficult to procure and obtain the supplies in time to maintain the flow of supplies when FEA-Army shipments cease at the end of December.
The $60 million out of the $550 million will not be sufficient to maintain programmed shipments to Italy in February. Accordingly, it is essential that this Administration have in hand funds out of the second one percent contribution before the end of December in order to finance the February supplies. If these additional funds are not received, shipping programs not only for Italy but all other countries receiving UNRRA supplies will be disrupted. We shall, however, make such February shipments as may be possible to Italy having in mind, of course, our responsibilities to other nations and reasonable assurance that a second one percent contribution will be made available by the United States.
I cannot emphasize too strongly that the responsibility rests squarely on the State Department to obtain the necessary funds from the United States for the continuance of UNRRA’s relief program for all recipient countries and in particular Italy. It is essential that the United States Government assure to UNRRA the funds which are necessary for the continuance of its program.
Sincerely yours,
- For the discussion at the Third UNRRA Council regarding aid to Italy, see Journal of the Third Session of the Council, pp. 100–115; the text of Resolution 73, “A Program of Relief and Rehabilitation Assistance in Italy”, is printed in Woodbridge, UNRRA, vol. iii, p. 143.↩