Editorial Note
Following a discussion at the Cabinet meeting of February 14 and a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on War Food Problems on February 15, concerned with emergency relief for Moldavia, President Truman announced on February 17 that he had asked the American Red Cross to finance and supervise the distribution of a shipload of emergency food rations being diverted to Rumania by the United States Army. The President explained that he was taking the action on humanitarian grounds as a result of information about the famine in Moldavia. In his statement, President Truman also gave the substance of a communication given to the Rumanian Minister the following day asking the Rumanian Government for assurances that cereal grains purchased from the United States, as well as indigenous food, would be utilized effectively in order to prevent the recurrence of famine conditions. For the text of the President’s statement, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Harry S. Truman 1947 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1963), page 132 and Department of State Bulletin, March 2, 1947, page 396. On February 25, the Department of State issued a statement to the press summarizing a communication received from the Rumanian Government expressing gratitude for the assistance being rendered Rumania by the American people and giving most of those assurances asked for by the United States Government with respect to grain subsequently purchased by Rumania. For the text of the statement, see Department of State Bulletin, March 9, 1947, page 448. Subsequently, at the recommendation of the International Emergency Food Council, the Department of Agriculture allocated approximately 68,000 tons of corn to Rumania for food purposes for delivery March through June and 27,000 tons of corn and oats for seed purposes. In July, the Rumanian Government [Page 477] cancelled its requests for additional allocations of corn from United States stocks. Documentation on United States-Rumanian negotiations for the allocation of American grain to Rumania is included in Department of State file 871.5018.