Press Release, Message of President Harry S. Truman to the United States Congress

HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE November 13, 1945 CONF IDENTIAL To be held in STRICT CONFIDENCE and no portion, synopsis or intimation to be given out or published until the READING of the President's Message has begun in either the Senate or House of Representatives. Extreme care must there- fore be exercised to avoid premature publication. WILLIA D. HISSETT Sccretary to the Prosident TRUMIN TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: NARA of This country has pledged itself to do all that is reason- ably possible to alleviate the suffering of our war-torn allies and to help them begin the task of restoring their economic productivity. The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration is one of the most important instrumentalities for accomplishing this great task. As I stated in my message to the Congress on September 6, 1945, the forty-seven nations of the Council of United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration determined at their Third Meeting in London last August that contributions beyond those originally made would be necessary if we expect to complete the minimum tasks assigned to UNRRA. The Council recommended, on the motion of the United States Delegate, that each member country, whose territory had not been invaded by the enemy, should contribute an additional amount equal to one percent of its national income for the fiscal year 1943. In accordance with this recommendation, the United States' share would be $1,350,000,000, matching our original contribution authorized by the Act of Congress of March 28, 1944. The original contributions of all the member nations have been applied principally to the activities of UNRRA in providing relief and rehabilitation assistance to the countries of eastern and southeastern Europe, and to the care of United Nations' displaced persons stranded in enemy territory. UNRRA, of course, does not undertake relief or rehabilitation responsibilities in either Germany or Japan. The invaded countries of northwest Europe, comprising France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark and Norway, by and large, possess sufficient resources in foreign currency and credit to acquire their own essential imports from abroad. Direct assistance to northwest Europe is, therefore, not being furnished by UNRRA. Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Greece and Albania, on the other hand, not only have suffered greatly at the hands of the enemy in the course of the war but they are almost entirely with- out foreign exchange or credit resources. Consequently to date they have been the chief objects of UNRRA's activity. UNRRA has undertaken a limited program of $50,000,000 in Italy to provide for the health and care of children, and expectant or nursing mothers. Italy, since her participation in the war as a co-belli- gerent with the United Nations, has contributed substantially in both manpower and facilities to the Allied victory, becoming, at the same time, one of the most severely contested battlefields of the war. The destitution and needs there are appalling. Italy has virtually no foreign exchange resources and without the aid of UNRRA the country might well lapse into starvation.