851.6131/8–2247
The Department of State to the French Embassy
Memorandum
The Department of State acknowledges the receipt of the aide-mémoire from the Embassy of France dated July 25, 1947 and the memoranda of August 14 and August 22, 19471 in which supplementary allocations totalling 500,000 to 550,000 tons are requested for August and September, and the support of the United States is sought in the Cereals Committee of the International Emergency Food Council for a monthly allocation during the fourth quarter of 340,000 tons for metropolitan France and French North Africa. The Embassy’s memorandum of August 22 states an import requirement for France and French North Africa for the half-year period July–December 1947 of 1,450,000 tons as compared to 825,000 tons recommended by the International Emergency Food Council.
The difficulty which France faces by reason of greatly reduced indigenous supplies is fully appreciated and the United States is therefore making relatively large allocations to France beginning in September, whereas allocations from the United States were not made during the previous crop-year in any considerable amount before March. Unfortunately, reduced availability from the United States [Page 739] and increased requirements in many other countries also afflicted by reduced harvests have not made it possible to meet the French request for large supplementary shipments in August and September.
The matter of the amount of total programs of shipment to France and French North Africa and the share from the United States during the second half of 1947 is related to the recommendation regarding world grain distribution in that period as developed in the International Emergency Food Council’s Cereals Committee. The total availability with reference to which that body has to develop its recommendations on distribution has unfortunately been reduced not only because of greatly lowered production of corn in the United States but also by a most serious curtailment of the Canadian wheat crop. It is hoped that the objections or reservations of the French representative as expressed at the Cereals Committee meeting in Winnipeg, both concerning quantities indicated for France and those indicated for military zones of occupation, will be modified as requirements are more fully analyzed and possibly modifications effected in the distribution pattern which has been put forward. The Department understands that the French representative on the Cereals Committee as well as representatives of other countries not sitting in the Executive Committee may be invited to attend hearings held in that Committee on requirements which are recognized to be of especial importance and interest to such representatives. In this way it is expected that the membership of the Cereals Committee will more generally achieve a sense of participation in the important work of evaluating requirements and a more complete understanding of all the factors which must be considered in working out the most equitable distribution which can be realized.
- Memoranda of August 14 and 22, not printed.↩