Request of the Spanish Government for the technical assistance of the League in the study of measures for providing food supplies for refugees (report)
1938-11-03 032-0199-004 - 3 - Geneva, October 29th, 1938. To the Secretary-General. We have the honour to submit a report on the mission with which we were charged in connection with the request made by the Spanish Government for assistance in the study of the problem of ensuring the supply of food...
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| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
| Language: | English |
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03 November 1938
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/700A0280-9BE3-4561-9DC9-09C0BAED259F http://hdl.handle.net/10796/9E7F30A4-4D80-4692-B562-08C7FF6E593D |
| Summary: | 1938-11-03
032-0199-004
- 3 - Geneva, October 29th, 1938. To the Secretary-General. We have the honour to submit a report on the mission with which we were charged in connection with the request made by the Spanish Government for assistance in the study of the problem of ensuring the supply of food to refugees. This report is based upon a personal investigation of conditions in Spain conducted by us during the period October 9th to 27th. The Spanish Government in its letter of September 22nd (annexed) which was considered by the Council, laid stress on the gravity and the urgency of the problem and our own experience fully endorses the view then expressed by it. In consequence we have spared no pains to accomplish our task as expeditiously as possible. 1. The mission with which we have been charged raises three main questions: (i) Is the refugee population in Republican Spain in need of food relief? (ii) Are the refugees differentiated from the native civil population? (iii) Can a scheme be devised whereby food supplies provided would be distributed to the refugees and the refugees only? 2. Our enquiries enable us to answer all these questions in the affirmative. 3. All Republican Spain is suffering from acute food shortage. This shortage is due to the War: to the necessity for maintaining and equipping an Army in the field; to the severance of Republican Spain from its inland districts of supply; to the air blockade of its ports, especially Barcelona and Valencia; the withdrawal of labour from the land (the effect of which will be increasingly felt in subsequent harvests); and to the great influx of refugees from non-Republican Spain, which has increased the normal population by 20 to 25%. 4. In consequence, Government has placed the whole population on minimum rations; supplies are uncertain and irregular and with the exception of the daily bread ration of 150 grams of bread, which hitherto appears to have been everywhere maintained, the rations actually obtainable often fall far short of the rations allotted on paper. While we were struck by the morale of the people, the effects of malnutrition are visible everywhere among the refugees and the poorest classes of the population, and it must become more acute with the passing of the summer sun and vegetation. The native civil population pays for its basic rations at fixed prices, but may supplement them within their means by purchase of a few commodities at the co-operative unions and what shops are still open. But stocks are meagre and
292/946/32/199(iii) |
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