A Ship for Poland

RELIEF A Ship for Poland

After nearly a whole year's effort, UNRRA tasted triumph, of a sort. Last week the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration was finally loading a ship with goods--perhaps 10,000 tons of relief--for one of the neediest countries of Europe, Poland.

To achieve this meager result UNRRA had had to compromise one of its fundamental principles. No permission had been received for UNRRA's men to oversee the distribution of UNRRA's supplies.

Back of UNRRA's single ship lay a long story of negotiation:

P: In May 1944 UNRRA first asked Russia whether it might send supplies to liberated Poland and to Czechoslovakia. Moscow's reply: silence. P:Discussions were begun with the London Poles, who asked for shipments to Poland as soon as possible. P:UNRRA asked the Combined Shipping Board for ships. The Board's answer: they would have to come from the shipping allotted to Russia (then building up military supplies for the offensive against Berlin).

P:In September, at UNRRA's meeting in Montreal, the Lublin Poles urgently requested aid. The London Poles renewed their earlier request and endorsed the Lublin appeal. At the same time the Russians, who had tentatively accepted an UNRRA proposal to send a mission to Moscow to discuss relief in the areas liberated by the Red Army, suggested that the mission be postponed (no reason given). P:UNRRA offered to send an advance technical mission to Lublin. Lublin said "fine," later added: "But don't send the mission before the supplies." P:UNRRA asked Moscow for visas for the mission. Moscow did not answer. P: UNRRA argued the Shipping Board into promising a token allotment of shipping for relief to Poland--in hope that the promise would make the Russians more cooperative. P:UNRRA asked the Lublin Poles to ask the Russians to designate ports for transshipment of supplies. The Russians announced last month that Constantsa and Galatz, on the Black Sea, could be used. P: UNRRA asked Moscow for transit visas for its relief supervisors. Moscow's reply (up to last week): silence.

These negotiations indicated once again the Russians' suspicion of foreign officials poking around behind their lines. They also revealed UNRRA's impotence--unable to command ships to make deliveries, obliged to negotiate four or five ways before getting into motion.

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