851.61311/10–1047: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Embassy in France
us urgent
3880. Deptel 3873.1 Secretary of Commerce Harriman plans to issue Russian wheat statement on Oct. 13 or 14 in course of meeting of Inland Press Association in Chicago. Exact text of statement may not be available in advance but he plans to use following draft as a guide:
This Govt is greatly concerned over the French grain situation. Because of a natural disaster, the French cereal crop this year is the worst in over a century. The US is doing the utmost which circumstances will permit to offset the dire consequences in human suffering of this harvest failure. In spite of our own greatly reduced grain supply, because of the poor corn crop, shipments of cereals from this country to France during 1947 are expected to exceed shipments during 1946. But shipments from this country, despite their increased volume, will not alone be adequate to offset the bad French harvest.
The press has carried statements of an official French spokesman to the effect that the French Government asked the Soviet Government several weeks ago to send wheat to France and that the Soviet Govt has not yet replied to this request. We all know that while harvests in western Europe have been unusually bad this year, in eastern Europe they have been good. Statements in the Soviet press concerning the Russian harvest have lead the Cereal Committee of the International Emergency Food Committee to estimate that the USSR should have an exportable surplus of two million tons from the 1947 crop. Under the circumstances it is hoped that the Soviet Govt will respond favorably to the request of the French Govt and will be willing to share with us the task of relieving the acute shortage of bread this winter both in France and in western Europe generally.
- Not printed.↩