COPENHAGEN CONFERENCE AS STARTING POINT

Chronicle (Levin), 4 September 1946, Page 5

COPENHAGEN CONFERENCE AS STARTING POINT

GOPENIIAGEN, Sejit. 2. - "The world in the future may look .»aek 011 ('openhagen as , t.he sl ari ing pktee lor intei nuliuiial nelion to meet. maii \s basic u-eed toi- iood, ' said Eii John Boyd-Orr, ' in op'eniiig the eonfer' enec the. 'Foiyl Und- AgBCulLu/al, Organisation. "The Nations, by ensuring tliAt eoulUinption keejis pa''*5 vvilli inereased iw.oduetion will be taking a mosl. i'undamimlal step. We ha\e si>e.nt the Jast. i'e\v months in get t ing our teeth inl.u ehe World 's food pridilems and now are ready to preseut a prograiiime of aeliun .or tlie eonsideriil lon of Govern ments. ' ' Denmark's Foreign Minister (ilr. Rasmussen j said « that. world peace and ihe soeial order depended 011 removi'ng lninger and the l'ear of hunger. Sir John Boyd-Orr 's propOsnl that the Food and Agrifultural Orgltnisatioii should persuade the world to establish the eontrol iieeessarv to i'eed a hungry world, and also to organise ihe disposal of future surpluses of food without eeonomie disorder, will be debated by tlie 325 delegates when the organisation bcgins its nieeting loday, says Beulers. Sir John proposos tlie creatiou of a world food board enipowered to imple111 ent a world plan for food growing and to fix speeial low priees to assisl the f'amine areas of tlie world to raise their nutritional stamlards. The Danisli ilinister of Agriculture (Mr, Erik.. Eriksen),.in a speeeh 011 tlie 'lfppod : .tlmt inct'eas'e.d T^oduefitm qf ia,gricul^ura^ produets%wqfllL tio|^(as aJjber -tlieflasf "w.ar; lead to'a^c ri si s e ' 1 M$ ;f'E r i k tteiiin 0 1 e d ihe .current policy of certain nations in seenidng speeial. l'ow- food priees 011 tlie grouncts of eith'e'r soeial policy or for nutritional reasons, and eomniented that he hoped the burden of applying the system tliroughout the world would not be tlirown on the exporting countries. A message from Copeiihagen says that the Food and Agrieultural Organ isation report to tlie food conference said that improvod harvest prospects, notably in Soutliern Europe and ('hina, had reduced the estimated gap between world export supplies and requireinents of bread and grains for 1045-4.7 to about S, 000, 000 tons. This improvement of 2,000,001) tons depends 011 tlie maintenance of tlie present flour extrae■tion rates and controls over the collection and use of grains. Some countries were so short of foreign exchange that they probably could not iinport enough for a minimum diet, The diet for large groups of people "wa s likely to remain at 1500 calories or less throughout 1940-47 if speeial tlnancial aid was not arranged after Unrra had elosed down.