British and American delegates at the Preparatory Commission of the International Refugee Organization clashed today on the question of whether displaced persons and refugees should receive higher rations than the indigenous population of the area where the refugees are located at present.
The American representative, Alvin Rosenman, backed by the French delegate, M. de Rosen, challenged British delegate Sir George Rendel’s suggestion that the refugees and the native population should receive the same food ration. Rosenman insisted that the I.R.O. should not set lower standards than those now being maintained in the American zone of Germany. De Rosen declared that the refugees had suffered “long enough at the hands of the Nazis” and that they needed higher rations than the Germans because they could not recover their health on a daily ration of 1,500 calories, but needed 2,000.
Rendel maintained that higher rations discouraged the refugees from returning to their former homes. He was supported by the Norwegian delegate and Sir Herbert Emerson, director of the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees. The Norwegian said that higher rations encouraged the DP’s to remain in their camps rather than seek adjustment in the surrounding areas where conditions were worse. Emerson stated that differences in rations bred hostility between the refugees and the native populations.
Emerson also warned the delegates that the I.R.O. funds were limited to $112,000,000 and that it must be cautious in its use of these funds. Insisting that the I.R.O. budget was inadequate, he said that it must depand upon various governments and voluntary relief agancies to fill the gap between what the organization could supply and the refugees needed.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
