Foreign Relations of the United States, 1947, General; The United Nations, Volume I

Editorial Note

Throughout 1947, the Executive Branch of the United States Government was constantly and urgently pre-occupied with the economic crisis in Europe and Asia arising out of shortages in food, fuel, and critical industrial items occasioned by wartime destruction and dislocations. These critical shortages, the fact that the United States was “the great undamaged center” of world food and industrial production, and the acute shortages in land transportation facilities in the United States and in shipping on the oceans, together made up the components out of which emerged a United States policy for controlled domestic and international distribution of basic items in critical short supply elsewhere in the world.

In the first six months of the year the Executive Branch communicated a series of messages and statements to the Congress, seeking needful legislation to implement such a policy. The following communications were basic and are found in the Department of State Bulletin:

(1) “Extension of the Second War Powers Act” (excerpts from message from the President to the Congress, January 31, 1947, Department of State Bulletin, February 23, 1947, page 362);

(2) “Necessity for Extension of Export Control Act” (message from the President to Congress, March 19, 1947, Ibid., April 13, 1947, page 676);

(3) “Extension of Second War Powers Act Requested” (statement by Under Secretary Acheson before Sub-committee 4 of the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives, June 6, 1947, Ibid., June 15, 1947, page 1173);

(4) “Extension of Government Operation of Shipping Facilities” (statement by the Secretary of State made before the House of Representatives Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, June 11, 1947, Ibid., June 22, 1947, page 1225);

(5) Statement made by Under Secretary of State William L. Clayton before the House of Representatives Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, June 11, 1947, in support of statement made by the Secretary of State, Ibid., June 22, 1947, page 1226.

In the summer of 1947 the United States Government became increasingly preoccupied specifically with the problem of the production and consumption of food in the United States and its distribution abroad. This concern was communicated to the United States public in a series of statements and reports as follows:

(1) “Report of the Cabinet Commission on World Food Problems: Statement by the President” (issued in White House press release, July 5, 1947, Department of State Bulletin, July 13, 1947, page 85);

(2) “The Cabinet Commission on World Food Problems: Statement by the President” (issued in White House press release, September 15, 1947, Ibid., October 5, 1947, page 690);

(3) “The 1947–1948 Grain-Export Program: Letter to the President from the Secretary of Commerce [Harriman]”, dated September 24, 1947 (this included a special interim report on grain export policy prepared by the President’s Committee on Foreign Aid; (released to the press by the White House on September 27, 1947, Ibid., October 5, 1947, page 691);

(4) “Congressional Committees Examine World Food Crisis: Statement by the President” (White House press release, September 29, 1947, Ibid., October 12, 1947, page 735);

(5) “Citizens Food Committee Inaugurates Conservation Program: Statement by the President” (delivered before the Citizens Food Committee at the White House, October 1, 1947; released to the press by the White House, on the same date, Ibid., October 12, 1947, page 736);

(6) “Food-Saving Program as a Contribution to Peace: Address by the President” (radio address broadcast over all national networks on October 5, 1947; White House press release, October 5, 1947, Ibid., October 12, 1947, page 738).

The United States had in 1947 formulated its food export program within the framework of the pattern recommended by the International Emergency Food Council, and the export of grain as a matter of national policy had necessarily been closely associated with the foreign relief program of the United States (for documentation on this subject, see editorial note, page 1026). With the coming of the autumn and the approach of winter, however, the United States Government became so gravely concerned with the critical food shortages in Western Europe, together with a financial and fuel crisis, and the certain knowledge that newly conceived European recovery program would not become a reality until sometime in 1948 (for documentation on the Marshall Plan, see volume III, pages 197 ff.), that President Truman was impelled on October 23, to announce the calling of Congress into special session on November 17 in order “for this Government to take adequate steps to meet the crisis in Western Europe, where certain countries have exhausted their financial resources and are unable to purchase the food and fuel which are essential if their people are to survive the coming winter.” For documentation on the interim aid program, see Ibid., pages 439 ff.