A—2a

Much of the time of the Committee on Policy was accordingly devoted to a consideration of ways and means of meeting the food crisis. At the end of the Committee's general discussion of this problem a, sub-committee was appointed to draft resolutions for submission to the Council —the sub-committee consisting of representatives of those countries which had served on the ad hoc sub-committee on special supply problems of the Committee on Supplies, with the addition of representatives of India and of Cuba. In the course of the general discussion, strong criticism was expressed by countries receiving UNRRA relief, as well as by spokesmen for the Administration, of the existing international machinery and arrangements for allocation of food-supplies. This criticism was directed primarily against supplying countries, and more particularly against the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States, as members of the Combined Food Board. Specific complaints may be summarized as follows: (1) That the membership of the Combined Food Board should be broadened to include recipient as well as supplying countries, particularly in view of the present critical situation in which supplying countries whose peoples face no serious shortage are, in effect, able to allocate their surpluses as they see fit and thus to determine how, among the peoples of the recipient countries, the incidence of inevitable suffering and starvation shall be allocated. Specific proposals for broadening the membership of the Combined Food Board included a suggestion from the Director-General that the U.S.S.R. be invited to join—a proposal which evoked no comment or response from the Soviet member of the Council — and a further suggestion, which found a considerable measure of support, that UNRRA itself should be represented, on the Board. (2) That, in any ease, the Governments comprising the Combined Food Board have made allocations which, so far as they are known, are seriously out of proportion with the needs of claimant countries, particularly those countries dependent on UNRRA assistance. In this connection, the U.S.S.R., China, Poland, and Yugoslavia, among others, claimed that the requirements of UNRRA as an international body should not be subjected to a further screening and review. A number of recommendations designed to ensure a more equitable distribution of scarce supplies were put forward, including a specific proposal by the Administration, which clearly shared the doubts and misgivings of recipient countries as to the equity of existing procedures. In a resolution submitted for consideration of the sub-committee, the Administration urged the adoption of the following principles by the Combined Food Board and, also by the national allocating authorities as their sole criterion of equitable distribution:— " That the total supplies of food made available for export by all countries should be allocated so as to result in each food-importing member of the United Nations attaining the same percentage of its 1935-39 level of consumption as every other such importing member of the United Nations; and that in applying this principle the Combined Food Board, and also the national allocating authority should: "(a) Measure levels of consumption in terms of calories, fats, and animal proteins; and "(b) Take into account the indigenous production of each importing country/'

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