co-operation; second, and partly in conflict with the first, the growth of market
rigidities, national price and production controls, and trade restrictions; and third,
growing interest in intergovernmental commodity arrangements.
formerly Prime Minister of Australia, and by then Viscount Bruce of Melbourne
and High Commissioner for Australia in London. Bruce had attended the World
Monetary and Economic Conference in London in 193233 when, as a result of
the economic crisis, and the shrinkage of international trade, widespread unem-
ployment occurred in both Europe and the United States. The only remedies that
were being applied were tariff barriers and other measures to restrict the production
of food and other goods in order to raise prices. Bruce uttered the solemn warning
that `an economic system which restricted the production and distribution of the
things that the majority of mankind urgently needed was one that could not
endure'. He predicted disaster unless measures were taken to develop the potential
wealth of the world in a rapidly expanding world economy. Bruce proposed at the
League of Nations that committees should be set up to find out how much more
food was needed and what means might be taken to get nations to cooperate in a
world food plan based on human needs.
human needs would bring prosperity to agriculture, which would overflow into
industry, and bring about the needed expansion of the world economy, through
what Bruce described as `the marriage of health and agriculture'. This new concep-
tion of considering food in all its relationships to health, economics and politics,
roused considerable enthusiasm. It was decided to consider ways and means of
applying this new idea in practice. An international committee of physiologists,
including Americans and Russians, was appointed to report on the food needed
for health. An `International Standard of Food Requirements' was agreed upon,
which gave an indication of the amount of food needed throughout the world. A
`mixed committee' of leading authorities on nutrition, agriculture and economics
was then appointed to examine and make recommendations on every aspect of
the food problem, including production, transport and trade. This committee of
20 members brought out a report on the benefits from developing the world's food
supplies. A conference was called to consider what action to take to implement
its recommendations. Bruce and others sent the following telegram to Boyd Orr
with whom the subject had been discussed: `Dear Brother Orr, this day we have
lit a candle which, by the Grace of God's grace, will never be put out' (a reference
to a speech made by Hugh Latimer when he and another Protestant were burned
at the stake) (Boyd Orr, 1966, p. 119).
found that both `co-operated harmoniously' in preparing the report. When it was
received, the League of Nations Assembly decided to set up another committee