862.5018/7–747
The Secretary of State to the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services ( Gurney )
My Dear Senator Gurney : You requested in your letter of July 7, 194763 the views of the State Department on S. 1566, a bill “To provide for greater efficiency of the military forces of the United States in occupied countries, and for other purposes”, which is pending before the Senate Committee on Armed Services. This bill proposes that exports of food supplies from the United States support “a minimum basic rationing of not less than two thousand calories daily food rationing per person in Germany and Austria” and a minimum basic rationing in other occupied areas of the amount (not in excess of 2,000 calories per person) as deemed necessary by the Secretary of War.
The Secretary General of the International Emergency Food Council has announced that world import needs for cereal grain for the crop year July 1, 1947 to June 30, 1948 exceed prospective exports by 18 million tons. Total world export availability covers less than two-thirds of stated import requirements. Cereal requirements submitted by Army authorities for the German Bi-Zone are placed at 5,300,000 tons and those of the Pacific Occupied areas (Japan, Korea and the Ryukyus) at 3,600,000 tons. The total of stated requirements for these occupied areas is therefore 8,900,000. In this statement of requirements, German consumption is placed for the normal consumer at 1800 calories rationed food from October 1 onward and that of Japan at 1246 calories rationed food and 1550 calories total intake. The United Kingdom Zone in Germany is here included, since the Bi-Zonal Agreement necessitates maintaining consumption in the two zones at the same level. For these areas the United States is to all practical purposes the sole supplier. Its export program to them in the crop year 1946–1947 totalled 4,590,000. Of this 1,377,000 went to the United States Zone in Germany, 1,696,000 to the United Kingdom Zone in Germany and 1,516,000 to the Pacific Area. These shipments constitute over 30 percent of the total United States export program for 1946–47 of 14,880,000 tons.
The Secretary of Agriculture has declared that no increase in the United States total export program for the crop year 1947–48 can be expected over that of 1946–47. The volume of last year’s shipments may therefore be considered the upper limit of what can be shipped this year. The above mentioned stated requirements of the Army for 1947–48 would therefore constitute about 60 percent of the total which can be shipped by the United States. If the normal consumer ration, [Page 1161] which represents the lowest ration scale for adult consumers in Germany, were raised to 2,000 calories as apparently required by S. 1566, the total import requirements for Germany would be at least 1,000,000 tons higher. Total requirements for areas occupied by U.S. forces would then represent 65.5 percent of our total export program as measured by last year’s exports, and the proportion would be further raised if ration allowances in occupied areas other than Germany were increased in accordance with the provisions of the bill.
The ration targets set by the War Department are already so high that they will be extremely difficult to achieve. To reach these targets would necessitate a reduction in shipments to all areas other than Germany and the Pacific from the 10,300,000 tons programmed in 1946–47 to about 6,000,000 tons in 1947–48. The brunt of this reduction would fall on such countries as France, Italy, Greece, and the countries of northwestern Europe (Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, etc.) and upon India. It is probable that the attainment of the still higher goals set in S. 1566 would probably reduce the food intake in a number of Western European and Southern European countries below the German level, thus precipitating most serious political and economic repercussions.
It is generally acknowledged that the food intake in occupied areas has been insufficient for economic recovery. It has been impossible at times to meet the established ration scales which are based on 1,550 calories per day for the normal consumer in Germany and correponding allowances in other occupied areas. The Department of State has shared with the War Department a desire to improve the food supply to occupied areas. The first step in that direction would be to insure sufficient supplies to meet the present ration scales in these countries. The possibility of raising this ration level in the light of the supply situation will also have to be kept under constant review. As long as the present tight supply situation prevails, however, it would be exceedingly unwise to stipulate arbitrary and excessive food standards for occupied areas which must be maintained at all costs, irrespective of the consequences on other countries in the economic welfare and political staibility of which the United States has a very important stake.
The Department of State accordingly believes that the adoption of this bill would be extremely prejudicial to the achievement of the objectives of this country’s foreign policy.
The Department has been informed by the Bureau of the Budget that there is no objection to the submission of this report.
Sincerely yours,
Acting Legislative Counsel
- Not printed.↩