COMMITTEE IV (Reception Nos. 310, 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, (316) 325, (317)326, 318) Report of the Committee on Relief and Rehabilitation Policies Chairman: Dr. Tingfu F. Tsiang (China) Vice Chairman: Sr. Dr. D. Juan Carlos Blanco (Uruguay) Secretary: Mr. Luther Gulick Mr. John H. Cover, Assistant The Committee on Relief and Rehabilitation Policies having met and considered the matters referred to it reports as follows: 1. While other committees of the Council have been concerned with the highly important problems of the scope, the organization, the rules, the personnel, the relations with governments, the finances, the procedures, and the mobilization of supplies, Committee IV has been concerned directly with the war sufferings of men, women, and children around the world, and with the specific commodities and services which will be needed to end starvation, epidemics, and suffering and to enable peoples to help themselves again, as their countries are liberated from Axis oppression and slavery. 2. The terms of reference of this Committee are set forth in the first dozen lines of the UNRRA Agreement in the following inspiring words in which the United Nations express their determination: ... that immediately upon the liberation of any area by the armed forces of the United Nations or as a consequence of retreat of the enemy the population thereof shall receive aid and relief from their sufferings, food, clothing and shelter, aid in the prevention of pestilence and in the recovery of the health of the people, and that preparation and arrangements shall be made for the return of prisoners and exiles to their homes and for assistance in the resumption of urgently needed agricultural and industrial production and the restoration of essential services. 3. Recognizing that relief and rehabilitation involve many technical questions of policy, Committee IV was divided into the following six subcommittees: Subcommittee 1. Relief Distribution Policies 66 66 66 2. Policies With Respect to Health and Medical Care 3. Policies With Respect to Welfare Services, Including Relations With Voluntary Relief Agencies 4. Policies With Respect to Assistance to Displaced Persons Subcommittee 5. Policies Relating to Agricultural Rehabilitation and Other Means of Raising Food Essential to Relief 66 6. Policies Relating to Rehabilitation of Such Industries, Transport, and Other Services as Are Essential to Relief 4. The reports of these subcommittees have been reviewed, discussed and as amended adopted by Committee IV. 5. Your Committee recommends that these six reports, which are appended hereto and made a part of this report, be received by the Council and transmitted to the Director General for his information and for such further consideration and action as he may deem necessary. 6. Your Committee has embodied its policy determinations in a number of resolutions, all of which have received the approval of the Committee. The titles of these resolutions, copies of which are attached, are as follows: 7. Your Committee respectfully urges the adoption by the Council of the aforementioned resolutions. A Resolution Relating to Relief Distribution Policies RESOLVED (Reception No. 311) That the Council approves the following statement as a guide to activities with respect to relief and rehabilitation distribution: 1. That at no time shall relief and rehabilitation supplies be used as a political weapon, and no discrimination shall be made in the distribution of relief supplies because of race, creed, or political belief. 2. That in general the responsibility for the distribution, within an area, of relief and rehabilitation supplies should be borne by the government or recognized national authority which exercises administrative authority in the area. 3. That distribution should be so conducted that all classes of the population, irrespective of their purchasing power, shall receive their equitable shares of essential commodities. When supplies are sold to consumers, prices should be set at such levels as to facilitate the flow of supplies into the proper hands, and to avoid maladjustments in the price structure of the areas. 4. That distribution of relief and rehabilitation supplies should take place under effective rationing and price controls. The suppression of black markets should not be left to general pronouncements and decrees, but should be the subject of active measures of enforcement applied vigorously and unremittingly. 5. That the government or recognized national authority which exercises administrative authority in the area should take appropriate measures to insure that so far as the distribution within a liberated territory of relief and rehabilitation goods is done through private trade, the remuneration earned by private traders for their services is no more than is fair and reasonable. 6. That use should be made to the maximum practicable extent of normal agencies of distribution (governmental, commercial, cooperative), to the particular ends of combating inflation and restoring normal economic activity. This principle, however, cannot be pursued at the expense of measures found necessary under emergency conditions to insure an adequate control of the distribution of supplies and their direction to the appropriate consumers. 7. That if the Administration is called on by the military authority to furnish distribution services through its own organization and personnel in a liberated territory in which a government or recognized national authority does not yet exercise administrative authority, the Administration should, subject to the general provisions governing the relation of the Administration to the military authority and the government or recognized national authority concerned, make the fullest possible use of local authorities and of local organizations. 8. That the Administration be prepared to render direct assistance in distribution whenever, because of unusual circumstances the government or recognized national authority concerned requests such aid within its territory. Wherever as a consequence of such request, the Administration is directly concerned with internal distribution, it should follow, in cooperation with the national or local authorities, the same general principles as those recommended above. 9. That the Director General should be kept fully informed concerning the distribution of relief and rehabilitation supplies within any recipient areas, and under all circumstances there should be the fullest working cooperation between the governments or recognized national authorities concerned and the Administration for this purpose. A Resolution Relating to Health and Medical Care RESOLVED (Reception No. 312) 1. That the Council urge its members, when nominating alternates for membership of the standing technical Committee on Health, to designate as such alternates accredited and technically competent representatives of their respective national health services. 2. That the Council recommends that governments and recognized national authorities cooperate fully with the Administration in establishing at the earliest possible date regional and other emergency agreements and arrangements for the notification within the limits. of military security, of diseases likely to become epidemic, uniformity in quarantine regulations, and for other measures of prevention. 3. That the Council recommends that governments and recognized national authorities, whenever so requested by the Administration, offer all facilities in making available to the Administration suitable personnel for its health organization, including the temporary loan of technical experts and the services of scientific institutions. 4. That the Council recommends the closest collaboration at the earliest possible time between the Administration and the Allied Military Authorities, particularly in relation to the notification of infectious diseases, within the limits of military security, and to the orderly transfer to the Administration of the epidemic control and other public health measures put into operation by the military authorities. 5. That the Council recommends that governments and recognized national authorities whenever so requested by the Administration, facilitate in every way possible the assignment of their nationals from the occupied countries for technical training especially in the newer aspects of medical and sanitary sciences in the countries where such training is available; under the condition that the request be filed by the government concerned. A Resolution Relating to Welfare Services and Voluntary Relief RESOLVED Agencies 1. That welfare services administered by or in cooperation with the Administration shall be provided without discrimination because of race, creed, or political belief. 2. That it shall be the policy of the Administration to enlist the cooperation and seek the participation of appropriate foreign voluntary relief agencies, to the extent that they can be effectively utilized in relief activities for which they have special competence and resources, subject to the consent and regulation of the Director General in accordance with Article IV, paragraph 2, of the Agreement. 3. That the extent to which foreign voluntary relief agencies should be used for assistance in the relief and rehabilitation of distressed people in any country should be a matter to be determined by the Director General in consultation with the government or recognized national authority concerned. 4. That within the framework of its total program and with the closest collaboration between the health, welfare, and other appropriate organization units, the Administration should make specific provision for welfare services for victims of war-in particular for children, expectant and nursing mothers, the aged, and the disabled. 5. That, in general, welfare services should be administered, so far as possible, by the government or recognized national authority concerned and the Administration should make its resources available to the appropriate agency in accordance with plans agreed upon between the Administration and the national agency. Continuous cooperation should be maintained and information exchanged between the government or recognized national authority concerned and the Administration. 6. That the Administration should be prepared to administer welfare services directly, either in part or in whole, when called upon by a government or recognized national authority, which for any reason is unable itself to administer these services. 7. That because of already prolonged suffering due to war and because of critical needs, the Administration should arrange to provide, as promptly as possible, the necessary welfare services, to be available when countries are liberated or occupied by the United Nations. |