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(b) To go now to U.N.R.R.A. to obtain supplies
even on payment would seem to be going back on this policy: at least it might be so represented in other countries.
(c) Payment would certainly have to be made very promptly and probably in advance.
(d) However carefully publicity might be arranged to explain that the supplies were on payment, there would remain the risk of misrepresentation, e.g. it would probably be said that we were diverting supplies or shipping from China or Europe.
(e) The position is further complicated by introducing the addition of Malaya and North Borneo.
There is only a short time before U.N.R.R.A. closes down and to arrange contracts for supplies for delivery in time would be difficult, apart from the question of shipping.
4. A further point is the extent to which such an application would prejudice the attitude we have hitherto adopted towards the proposal for a further emergency relief programme. Our Delegates at the Fifth U.N.R.R.A. Council Session at Geneva recently opposed this on the grounds that the United States had spent large sums of money on relief projects for the Philippines and that we ourselves had done the same for our Far Eastern possessions.
Our argument was that since we had not applied
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