BACK TO LIFE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 95, 24 August 1942, Page 5

BACK TO LIFE

ALLIES NOW AT WORK ON COMPREHENSIVE PLAN To-day almost the whole of continental Europe is subject to a blockadc which Avill not be lifted till the Nazi poAver in Germany has been Oompletely broken. This blockade is not only, or eA r en mainly, directed to the denial of foodstuffs to the enemy. Europe is not, even in normal times, Avholly self-sup-porting in food and, since production in Avar-time is more incalculable than in peace, there remains the probability of grave—if only local —shortages arising at or before, the end of the Avar.

The blockaded area hoav includes the Avhole of Europe Avith the exception of Switzerland and the Iberian peninsula. Spain is in a precarious food position. The Scandinavian countries and, Holland haA'e become potential candidates for relief instead of sources of supplies. Greece, Norway and Belgium, three countries which in peace time arc importers of bulk foodstuffs and in the last. Avar received at least minimum supplies from are iioav entirely dependent on Germancontrolled economy.

Estimates of the post-war needs of food and. raw materials of Europe are now being prepared by the Allies. The technical problems of agricultural relief, medical relief, nutrition, inland transport and, of .supplies and shipping are under consideration. The aim is that, by the time Europe or any parb of it is free, a comprehensive plan of dealing with the emergencies that will arise shall be agreed by all the Allied Governments. There is no suggestion of taking arbitrary action on statistics prepared beforehand, but of developing plans of a flexible character to meet the situation which is likely to arise. The supply of foodstuffs will depend, perhaps, more on the course of the war outside Europe and the possibility of placing stocks in positions where they can be drawn on at short notice. Britain Will go Shares with Europe Reconstruction must synchronise with relief. It is important that, so far as possible, relief, should be initiated on sound dietary lines so as to make this foundation the basis for an all-round improvement in European nutrition in the years to come. A well fed Europe will lie a peaceful Europe. This result will not depend merely on a realisation of the need for improvement! or in dietary education. It depends, not only for the industrial workers but to* some extent also for the rural

population, on such an increase in spending power as will permit the purchase of something more than the cheapest types of bulk foodstuffs. Relief is both a political and an economic concern since adequate feeding, the prevention of epidemics, the return of people to their homes, the re-stocking of farms and the provision of productive employment are indispensable foundations for a stable political regime in Europe . The state of Europe after this war may be so critical as to prompt the people of the better-off countries willingly to forgo for some months the freedom of purchase which they enjoyed before, the war and to> demand a continuance of rationing oi at least some of the vital food supplies. The contribution of the United Kingdom can be as effective in

refraining from consumption as by donating supplies. We have been told that stocks of food will be o(n their way there, as they have been, thanks to the Allied Navies, so regularly throughout this war. May we not expect, to lind repeated the generous action which, on the day the last Armistice was signed, prompted the Governments to divert cargoes of food to northern and southern Europe to meet acute feeding dilfieulties and to transfer immediately consumable war stocks to black areas on .the Continent?

Europe's Harvest Will Depend on

America's New Ships

Europe will need raw materials as well as food at a very early point after the end of the war: cotton and wool for clothing, hides and leather for boots, copper for electrical power and light and timber for rebuilding the houses in the devastated areas. Shipping therefore cannot at the end of the war be devoted solely to the carriage of foodstuffs but

must also bring essential raw materials so that men can get back to work once more and make good the deficiencies of food, "wearing apparel and dwellings. The construction oJ refrigerated tonnage will become an

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urgent problem to enable imports of meat, butter and fruit to be resumed as rapidlj r as possible. Europe will be expecting supplies of coffee, cocoa, rice' and tropical fruits. Coffee has become a necessity on the Continent. The Germans'' effort to find a satisfactory brown, wet and hot substitute from acorns and barley, or anything else which when roasted will give the right degree of colour, is proof of this. We in Great Britain consume as much cocoa as the whole of the rest of Europe. A surplus of cocoa is piling up in West Africa and after the war, when shipping is available, Britain and the Continent Avill have

cocoa in plenty. Feeding stuffs are necessary to build up the livestock population and maize is one of the most important of them. There are large supplies but maize is bulky to ship and ships maj- be scarce. The hope of increasing European supplies of maize and of oil cake, so important to the dairy industry in countries such as Denmark and Holland, rests on the development of the vast shipping programme' which the United States has in hand. Each Country to be Rationed One of the aims of relief in 1919 was the firm establishment of a number of new or reconstructed national States. It seems unlikely that this motive will play an important part in the future. The movement in Central and South Eastern Europe is towards regional agreements, of which the first have been the Polish-Czech and the GreekYugoslav agreements. The possibilr ity of wider understanding is being discussed to-day by Allied statesmen . There can probably be no immediate reversion at the end of the war to a free economy, and the Allied nations will need, to plan a policy to, take the place of the Nazi New Order in Europe. If this seems to "be far from the sphere of postwar feeding in Europe, and of relief, it must be remembered that, for the first year after the war, or. perhaps longer, it wlli be' for the Inter-Allied relief authorities to de cidc the quantities not only of foodstuffs but of raw materials, agricultural requirements and capital goods entering each country.

Political planning on a regional scale shojiild be accompanied by economic planning. Industrially it should be possible to aim at preserving and extending those branches of manufacture which are adapted to each region's natural resources, including labour resources, its home consumption or payment for its necessary imports. Agriculturally a similar plan might be lollowed with the special aim oi raising the nutritional standards in Ku rope.

The object of a relief organisation, when it has completed the work it | has been set up to do, is to give fuller opportunities for reconstructive effort. If the Allied relief organisation whose planning has now begun can, in its luller international -development, not only prevent the. immediate suffering of the after-war years but leave a foundation on which the constructive agents can build, its main will; have been fulfilled.