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essential set up persists, including the British domination.
Brigadier Lush now becomes the "Chief of Staff" and all papers pass
through his office (which is wholly British). One cannot even get to
Commodore Stone's office without passing along a hall lined with British
offices. It is said that many of them try to prevent officers,
particularly American officers, from seeing Commodore Stone, or even
talking to him by telephone.
The British love conferences. The patters is pretty much true to a set form.
When the meeting opens, the American will discuss the subject at issue
freely and advance their opinions, often varied. The British, on the other
hand, seem always to have had a rehearsal and so present a united front.
Frequently the Americans will be told in advance that only an informal
meeting of little importance is to be held, and so they do not prepare
themselves fully. when the meeting opens, however, it has all the
formality of a peace conference and the British present a written plan,
long considered, to which the Americans are usually not ready to offer
much opposition. Long experience at this sort of thing has finally made
the Americans more wary, and they are now apt to give more study in
advance.
The Allied Control Commission has, seemingly, failed in three
respects. It has not made a success of its political affairs, its attempt
to "rule" Italy (though it was hardly created for shy such purpose). It
has not been able to provide a sufficient amount of food for the hungry
millions of Italians and, lastly, it has not brought in enough
transportation to carry even what food there is to the places where it is
to be distributed. A recent issue of Time called the A.C.C. "a humbling
Anglo-U.S. bureauracy superimposed on the Italians; composed of four-
fifths British brains and four-fifths American supplies - and neither is
adequate". To this one of the American officers at ACC headquarters was
heard to remark that while he knew that it would be hard to show that the
Americans had furnished even one-fifth of the Brains, he knew damned well
that the British could not show that they had furnished one-fifth of the
supplies.
When frantic meetings of ACC personnel are held to consider the
really serious problem of feeding Italy, they are able to show no end of
papers to prove that the fault is not theirs. They have written and wired
to their normal superiors very often. But the food is not forthcoming and
now, as the early winter sets in and people are more cold and hungry than
they have been for a century, the ACC calmly announce that it may be
necessary to cut even the small ration now in effect.
One of the causes of this critical situation is the complicated
system of asking for and getting supplies of food from the U.S. All of the
headquarters mentioned above have a hand in the picture and there is much
motion. Nobody has the vision to see how to cut the Gordian
Had AMG been allowed to remain separate of ACC prehaps the situation
would not have been so bad, for there were far less difficulties before
the "union". AMG has maintained that its prime reason for existence is to
take the burden of civil government off the shoulders of the Army
commanders, in order that the latter may give their full time and thought
to the actual technique of fighting. They have done this thus far. But if
the ACC does not give them the food and the means of hauling it, then they
cannot feed the people. In the combat zones this may result in serious
disorders which could hardly help hampering the military effort. Similarly
in the south of Italy there would be political disturbances of serious
import.