the necessity of asking that this brotherly flow of material 
      shall be diminished. It is not that the gifts are not desired 
      - indeed they have constantly been ingeniously devised to meet 
      our real needs and the parcels from America have become a familiar 
      and welcome feature in all the misfortunes which have overtaken 
      our civilian population. The request which I am now compelled 
      to make is due to additional demands on shipping resulting from 
      the enormously increased flow of war materials for which ocean 
      transport has to be provided. We shall have therefore to assign 
      to goods of a more warlike character the shipping space which 
      has hitherto been available for the relief of our people - a 
      sacrifice which we will make here without complaint, but not 
                    without very great regret.              
 
                                                            
 
 
As to the method of procedure, we have a Committee here - 
      the American Gifts Committee - which hitherto has endeavored 
      to ensure that gifts from America shall only be of a character 
      that shall meet some real need. The Committee will now have to 
      extend its