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DRAFT TELEGRAM  
 
 
For Assistant Secretary Acheson.  
 
 
Your letter March 20. I have at no time had any difficulty in  
accomplishing desirable relief objectives in behalf of American Relief for   
Italy with the Italian Government and believe we have rendered helpful   
assistance to UNRRA in encouraging with the Prime Minister and others of   
thr Governement the conclusion of modified UNRRA contrat the principal   
improvement being to give the governement an increasing control over   
relief administration, more free relief to indigent cases and smaller   
number of Allied personnel stop In our recnt advisory meetings of which   
you have minutes Keeny of UNRRA has attended and we believe we have   
clarified the position of American Relief for Italy so that it might not   
become either overshadowed by UNRRA to the disadvantage of the generous   
contributors in America and to avoid any likelihood of competition or   
overlapping or duplication by either organization stop we have now   
proposed with respect to the distribution of milk and vitamins that   
American Relief for Italy continue to supply a list of instiutions and   
schools now serving about 25,000 children in which this plan is now in   
operation and a planned extention to the north up to the present military   
front including a line Pisa-Florence-Arezzp-Rimini to serve a total of one   
hundred thousand children in the Rome-Naples and adjacent areas where   
careful records are being kept by medical assistance of the National   
Committee for the Distribution of Relief in Italy (ENDSI) have produced   
most surprising results indicating great improvement in the health of the   
children thus served even though the