Hoover Museum - Digital Archives

Hoover, Herbert, An American Epic,

Volume I. Henry Regnery Co., Chicago: 1959.

Chapter 24

MORE FOOD

AND BETTER GUARANTEES

Notwithstanding the assaults of the militarists, we were not neglectful of our obligations to ten million very hungry people. Taking advantage of the promised support from the Allied Foreign Offices, we asked for increased import permits and more subsidies.

There had been no reason for the British and French Foreign Offices’ reduction of food supplies at the end of February, 1916. There was, at this time, abundant overseas food available in the world. The action taken by the British and French certainly did not frighten the Germans. Indeed, it gave them the opportunity to charge the British and French with starving the Belgians and Northern French.

As I said in the last chapter, I personally went to Belgium to make a re-estimate of the situation on the spot and to give as fresh a report as possible to the Foreign Offices. With the reduced food supply, the Belgians’ daily regimen was as follows:

Total grams per diem		394.0

Total protein		49.1

Total fats		39.5

Total carbohydrates		256.1

Total calorific value		1,552.0

The total of 1,552 calories per person per diem was about 50 per cent below the normal consumption of the Belgians and about 50 per cent below what was being consumed by the British at the time. Worse still, the ration was entirely too short on protein and fats. Even if a diet were balanced, a per-person average of 1,552 calories would mean that large segments of the population would get only 1,000 calories because a minimum of more than 2,500 calories had to be given to people engaged in heavy physical labor or the very wheels of life would stop. Of the total food supplies, substantial amounts had to be assigned to the soup kitchens and the children’s canteens. But the reduction in imports “debilitated” the soup and the canteens.

I again returned to the necessity of increasing imported supplies to Belgium and the North of France in a letter to Lord Percy at the Foreign Office:

London, 5 April 1916

Dear Lord Eustace:

BELGIAN PROGRAM OF IMPORTS

I wish to put before you the result of my investigations into the food position in Belgium as the result of my recent inspection. I may say that I had the advantage of discussions with the whole of our forty American district and staff managers, as well as with the Belgian committees and authorities. As a result we earnestly recommend the following changes in the permitted reports: . . .

I then urged an increase from the previously allowed monthly program of 68,150 tons for Belgians to 75,750 tons, this additional quantity to be used mostly for the needs of children. I also urged:

We strongly recommend that all cereals be made interchangeable as we simply cannot arrange precise shipments, and specific limitation on individual cereals has the effect of frequently decreasing the ration. . . .

WE SECURE BETTER GUARANTEES

FROM THE GERMANS

From the information given me by Ambassador Gerald in the wake of the C.R.B.’s “blowup” (see pages 204-205), it appeared that the Germans were anxious for us to continue our work. Therefore, as a first step in assuring a more liberal attitude from the British on imports, I felt that this was an opportune time to secure re-establishment of the Germans’ agreement of December 25, 1915, not to take any native food. Von Bissing’s repudiation of the undertaking was one of the causes of our troubles with Allied import permissions. To satisfy the British, I again demanded that the Germans prohibit exports of any food from the occupied territory and that they stop requisitions of native food.

The negotiations were taken up by Villalobar and Whitlock with von Bissing’s regime.

To aid them, I sent them samples of what we had to confront in the way of British complaints. However, the negotiations with von Bissing in Brussels by our Minister Patrons were getting nowhere. I took advantage of a returning American Embassy courier to inform Ambassador Gerard in Berlin of von Bissing’s attitude and suggested that perhaps he could stir up things without creating “feelings” in either our patron Ministers in Brussels or in von Bissing. As usual, the Ambassador acted at once and ably. To my astonishment, the Ministers in Brussels suddenly succeeded in effecting our demands all along the line—no doubt due to Ambassador Gerard.

On April 14, 1916, a long document of agreement with our demands was received by Whitlock and Villalobar from von Bissing via Baron von der Lancken, his chief assistant. After an opening exposition of von Bissing’s good will and kind conduct, it contained the following essential paragraph relating to exports of food from Belgium:

. . . In accordance with the general import of the assurances last given the Government which Your Excellency represents, the Governor-General will resume and complete the measures already taken in this direction by new instructions forbidding the exportation from the territory of the General Government of foodstuffs (including animals), produce, and fodder, serving for human alimentation and animals. He will forbid, moreover, the exportation from said territory of seeds, fertilizers, and agricultural supplies. This prohibition will apply only to products of Belgian origin, it being especially understood that products of German origin which are now in the magazines of the military government may be exported. . . .