Trouble for Mi Hua

The child was the first born in the big D.P. camp in Seoul, Korea, and the parents called it Mi Hua (Little Flower) in honor of UNRRA's tough and kind-hearted boss. But 7,000 miles away, in Washington, Little Flower LaGuardia last week faced more headaches than honors.

The hard truth was that his agency lacked not only food but talent. UNRRA's Shanghai office (responsible for relief in the mortally stricken Hunan province) had long been under fire for rank inefficiency. Irate businessmen reported that relief supplies were sold in coastal markets instead of being shipped to the interior. While transport difficulties were admittedly enormous, an able administrator could have shipped much of the stores to starving regions accessible by river.

Last week, LaGuardia fired UNRRA's Shanghai boss, Ben Kizer, and sent in able Frank Ray, UNRRA's Far Eastern director, to tide Shanghai over the emergency.

There was trouble in Austria too. UNRRA had undertaken to feed all of Austria by April 1, but when the deadline arrived, it turned out that no provision had been made to back up the commitment with sufficient supplies. The U.S. and British zones had enough of their own food to maintain a 1,200-calorie ration level, but the Russians and French would be hard hit. To help UNRRA out, the U.S. and Britain contributed 100,000 tons of food to carry the other zones. Unless UNRRA manages to repay this "loan," the U.S.-British zones face starvation by next month.

Even in countries like Yugoslavia, where UNRRA's local administration is relatively efficient, there were headaches for the Little Flower. The New York Post's Tom Healy wrote last week: "UNRRA has developed into a political instrument of great importance in the hands of Marshal Tito and his seven fellow Communists who rule Yugoslavia. . . . The people . . . seem unaware that the food which has kept them alive this year has come free from nations far away . . . from strongholds of democracy and capitalism. . . . Sometimes the food [is] displayed under beribboned pictures of Tito and Stalin. . . . Russia sends no food [but] I did not see one public expression of gratitude and appreciation, for UNRRA. That gratitude was reserved for Tito and for Stalin!"

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