AMERICAN RELIEF FOR ITALY, INC
March 23, 1945
Meeting No. 20
Following are minutes of a meeting of the
Advisory Group concerning relief held March 23
1945, in the office of Ambassador Myron C. Taylor,
Chairman of American Relief for Italy, Inc.
In attendance were: Mr. Taylor, Mr. S. M. Keeny,
Chief, Italian Mission UNRRA; Brig. G. S. Parkinson,
D.S.O., Director Public Health Sub-Commission, A.C.;
Ing. G. B, Vicentini, Executive Director of E.N.D.S.I.;
Mgr. John P. Carroll-Abbing, Director of Sanitary
Services of the Pontifical Relief Commission;
Prof. John A. Canaperia, M.D., Inspector General
of Public Health Department, Ministry of Interior;
Miss Phoebe Bannister and Signor Mieggi of UNRRA;
Signori Darby and Zambrano of the Food Commission,
Italian Government; Avvocato Montini, Deputy Com-
missioner for Food, Italian Government, and Mr.
Howard B. Barr, Deputy to Mr. Taylor for American
Relief for Italy, Inc.
Mr. Taylor: It is important that we should start on the right basis in
the relations between the agencies which furnish relief supplies in Italy.
As ENDSI, the National Committee for Distribution of Relief in Italy,
has a distributing and accumulating agency through its own authority and
through the Italian Red Cross which is assisting in respect to accumulations
of materials, and through the association with the Vatican, there are a
group of agencies in the relief field, including UNRRA, which must be
correlated in their activities. Otherwise there might be overlapping and
confusion, and I am sure none of us want that. American Relief for Italy,
which was the first donator of materials for distribution in Italy through
the Italian National Committee, is accumulating relief supplies and will
continue to accumulate. It has now received quantities of materials of
various sorts on the second group of ships arriving in Italy from America.
We will send to each of you a copy of the list of materials which have
been received this month. It is quite an extended list, and it is unusual
in the respect that a great many of the materials, such as clothing, shoes,
blankets, shawls and stockings are new material. They present a different
problem in distribution than used-materials which, of course, are in a
greater quantity, and we are casting about for a plan under which these
new and varied materials can be distributed without creating a feeling of
discrimination in any community. We have also received a large quantity of
milk--838,000 cans of evaporated milk; 5,585 lbs. of evaporated milk;
4,176 lbs of powdered whole milk and 6,700 lbs of Dextri-Maltose B.
We have also received 114 sets of physicians, instruments of the same type
as the 50 we received in the original lot, most of which have been
distributed in the areas where haspitals have been destroyed or
instruments stolen. I assume UNRRA will have physicians' instruments.
Mr. Keeny: Our medical program has not been decided, but there will
certainly be physicians, instruments in it. There are altogether about.
$9,000,000 worth of supplies of all sorts for hospitals, including
medicines. That list is now being compiled and will be available. We are
compiling the list for the remainder of the whole year. What will arrive
in the next quarter is a small part of the total. .
Mr. Taylor: American Relief for Italy has sent 14 cases of medicines and
drugs in this shipment. We have been discussing a plan to have a
particular agency deal with all of those medicines. Has that been
developed in its final stage, Mgr. Carroll-Abbing?