ALLIES PLAN

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 21, 25 February 1942, Page 5

ALLIES PLAN

A NEW EUROPE

INVADED COUNTRIES' NEEDS

(From a Correspondent) Each of the invaded countries of j Europe is now at work, through its provincial Government in London, on an estimate of its own requirements for getting going again when j the war is over, and a Central Bureau lias been set up to co-ordinate these individual plans. The plans will be dovetailed together to make it possible to assess exactly what is wanted to carry through the whole J job of European reconstruction. Anyone 'who was in Europe at the closc 'of the last war will know that, however confidently the peo- 1 pics now under Nazi domination have set their hopes on regaining ' their freedom, when the time comes they will need not only freedom but bread, and not only bread but fats, meat, sugar, clothing, hospital supplies, fuel and the livestock and implements to, restart the agriculture on which their future food supplies depend. The collapse of the German war machine in 1918 was followed in many countries by terrible piivations, sometimes amounting to absolute famine. I'll lands actually fought over, in Northern France, Serbia and Poland, houses had vanished, factories had been made useless and the soil itself was torn by explosives or hopelessly waterlogged. Throughout Europe the rapidly growing food shortage had driven the town population to the level of bare subsistence, or below it. Health was undermined and epidemics, once started, spread with fearful rapidity. Communications and transport had broken down in 'varying degrees and the authority of central and lecal Governments foil away with their material icsouivcs. Speed That help from outside Europe would' be required was realised even before the arniistice was signed, and, as time went on, great work was clone by the Supreme Economic Council, acting through the American Relief Administration and the Allied Governments with their relief missions in the field, as well as by such private bodies as the Quakers and the American Red Cross. Over 200 million pounds were spent on relief. But the need was not only of enormous extent and urgency, its character and the methods of relief were largely unknown, since a breakflown on such a scale had not overtaken Europe within living memory. Each emergency as it arose and was reported by devoted workers on the spot was handled as effectively- as possible with the supplies and transport available; but full restoration was inevitably slow, find Europe passed through much misery before the work of reconstruction was complete. Remembering this experience, the Allies in 1941 have lost no time in assuring Europe that liberation shall in fact bring a "freedom from want" as well as from political tyranny. The comfortable idea that post-war relief is a matter which can be shelved until the war is won has no place in, their policy; they believe that onty by early planning of speedy and adequate relief measures can post-war reconstruction become a reality. Co-ordinating World's* Vast "War Supplies But this is only the preliminary work. What follows will be the concern not only of the Allies, but ' of the whole of the outside world. : In the overseas territories of the ' Allies,, great stores of raw materials > —grain, cotton and wool, to men- " tion only a few—are accumulating ' and the day Avill come when they ! can be moved and disposed, of on the Avcrld's markets. Similarly, the United States and the Latin, Ameri--5 nan republics will also have the ; problem of finding markets foi ' their surpluses. The earmarking of • these stocks and their ultimate disposal in Europe without disturbing world markets will be a task for collaboration between all the countries concerned, and especially the Unit [• nd States, as the world's leading > financial power. I The idea of relieving distress in - countries " devastated by war and nther calamities is one that has a . particularly strong appeal for the American people, and it is not too much to say that post-war relief under the joint leadership of the Allies will require as an essential preliminary joint planning and action. The United States Govern-

ment has already expressed its sympathetic interest in the technicar discussions now going on in London, and no-doubt as this work proceeds to completion American pubtic opinion will require c-f its leaders a closer contact with, the scheme*.