I move:
That, in the opinion of Seanad Eireann, the Government should keep in close touch with Governments and organisations abroad engaged on schemes of post-war economic recovery to ensure that plans may be made for such an increase in our agricultural production as will enable Eire to make the largest possible contribution to the re-establishment of normal conditions in Europe after the war.
I do not know what may be in the minds of Senators as to what my purpose is in moving this motion. I believe that our material interests in this regard will coincide with what we would regard as being in the best interests of humanity in Europe, that is, from the point of view of the necessity, after the war, of making our contribution so as to bring about stability and order in the social life of the Europe of the future. I am not approaching this question from the angle that some people might imagine —that I had something very derogatory to say of the Taoiseach or his Department or of our own attitude in regard to our external policy at the moment.
Looking at the future of agriculture in the world as I see it now, I am convinced that as we go on, week after week, month after month and year after year, the problem of the world's food supply will become more alarming. We have such evidence in our own country, where we all believed that no man or woman could go short of essential foods; we have the experience of these days and we can learn from it. We can judge what conditions are going to be like outside if the Taoiseach's prophecy about the duration of the war is justified.
The situation in Europe pre-war from the point of view of the food supply was very interesting, and it is frequently misunderstood. Far from importing very considerable quantities of grain for human consumption, the situation actually was, with regard to wheat, that Europe was really importing something like 8 per cent. of its total consumption. Rye imports also were small, although the consumption of rye was about half that of other carbohydrates, such as wheat. We had the position in Europe frequently that they did not find it essential to import wheat to any extent from abroad. Presumably the situation has not worsened considerably in that respect, from the point of view of the production of cereals, anyhow. It may very well be that, under the stress of war, the productive effort in the matter of wheat or rye is little less than it was in pre-war days.
It is very interesting to study exactly the situation as one sees it with regard to food production in the world outside Europe. You have on the Continent of America, and indeed in Australia as well, huge quantities of grain being built up, tremendous colossal quantities, probably a greater storage than anything the world has previously seen. Side by side with that you have in all countries everywhere evidence of a very considerable decline in the production of live stock and live-stock products, and when I ask this House to say that the Government should keep in close touch with Governments and organisations abroad engaged on the problem of post-war economic recovery, so that we should make a major contribution to the re-establishment of normal conditions of life through our own agricultural productive effort, I am asking the House to say that, from the figures available to us to-day, normal conditions in European agriculture and in the social life of Europe can only be brought about by this little island making its contribution to that desirable result.
It does not matter who wins the war; hunger and starvation are going to be the lot of millions of people on the Continent of Europe, not only at the end of the war but for a number of years afterwards. For us here, such a situation can only be one that we must not alone deplore but make the greatest possible effort to alter and to end. Outside this island to-day the thoughts of men are being concentrated on this problem of agriculture in the future. It is interesting to look at the sort of situation with which those people are confronted, and to examine that situation and its bearings on our own possibilities of production and to examine, from our point of view as well as from theirs, what contribution we can make towards making things better.
It is obvious to all judging from the figures available to us as to the conditions at the end of the last war that the situation in Europe with regard to the live-stock population must be very unsatisfactory indeed. In the four years from 1914 to 1918 neither Holland nor Denmark was suffering from a blockade, yet the pig population fell in Denmark from 2,406,706 down to 620,888 and in Holland from 1,350,106 down to something round 600,000. In Germany itself, the cattle population fell from 21,800,000 down to 18,000,000, and the pig population in the same period, 1914 to 1918, fell from 25,000,000 down to 10,000,000. That is, there was the equivalent of a 60 per cent. reduction in pigs and a 15 per cent. reduction in the cattle population in Germany.
The position with regard to cattle was graver than these figures revealed for although these cattle lived, they just barely lived. They were all skin and bone. They could provide the people with neither meat nor milk— not for years afterwards. We all know from people who went there what the situation with regard to facts in Germany was for many years after the war. That was the situation resulting from the last war. I do not think anybody will pretend that the situation can be any better to-day. Not alone is this decline in the live-stock population a normal consequence of war on the Continent but on the American Continent the situation is something like this at present. The Canadian Acting Food Administrator, Mr. F.S. Grisdale, addressing the Canadian Federation of Agriculture at the end of last January declared that serious and growing shortages of primary foods confronted Canadians. They were entering, he said, the fourth year of the war with cattle, sheep and hog shortages much more serious than in the fourth year of the last war. There had been a decrease of 10 per cent. in the cattle population between 1914 and 1943, while the human population had grown from 8,200,000 to 11,500,000. That is what is happening in Canada to-day. Go to the United States itself. Mr. Hoover, the former President, addressing a meeting of the national conference of industrial boards at New York at the end of January said that there was a limit to the food resources of the United States, and pointing to the increased slaughterings of cattle during recent months, he said that cattle coming to slaughter were from 30 to 40 lbs. lighter than a year ago. Dairy cows were being slaughtered at an alarming rate, sheep slaughterings were 200 per cent. up on last year, and sows were being killed off. The slaughtering of female stock would allow a temporary increase in meat supplies but, in the long run, would be disastrous. Although the United States was shipping less than one-half the food shipped during the first great war, the nation's live-stock output had decreased in proportion to the population.
I have indicated to the House what the situation on the Continent was in regard to the live-stock population there as a result of the four years of the last great war. It takes no great flight of the imagination to picture what it must be like to-day, because the truth is that while the Continent might have been able to supply itself or its human population with the requisite amount of cereals, it was actually importing something like 90 per cent. of the animal concentrates necessary in Denmark, Holland and Belgium. None of these is available to European agriculture from the point of view of assisting to maintain their live-stock population to-day.
You see what is happening in Canada and the United States. At the same time, Canada, the United States and Australia, as I have pointed out, have built up great reserves of wheat. Just how far these are going to meet the needs of suffering humanity at the end of the war is something on which I am unable to pass judgement. I think there is, perhaps, a considerable amount of exaggeration in the minds of people even in the United States, as to what they are going to be able to do to alleviate distress with the supplies at hand and especially when you remember that it was stated at an International Labour Conference in the United States some time ago that practically 50 per cent. of the population of America were not being fed on a dietary standard up to the nutritional scale necessary for good health. But, be that as it may with regard to the cereal position in the world, there is no doubt whatever about the trend in regard to live-stock production throughout the whole world. There is no doubt whatever about the situation that will confront us in the future and our duty in this matter ought to be clear.
Recently I came across a small book entitled War and British Agriculture, by Dr. Harkness, in which he sums up the situation rather well. He said:
"It must be concluded, therefore, that after making every allowance for the difficulty of forecasting the position that will exist when hostilities cease, there is no present reason for planning for post-war agricultural reconstruction otherwise than on the basis of following the assumptions:
1. There will be a surplus of bread grain crops available throughout the world due (a) to the extension of wheat and rye production in Europe under the stimulus of war conditions, and (b) to the supplies from the great corn-producing countries overseas becoming once more freely available.
2. The supply of live stock and live-stock products will be drastically reduced and will not be readily capable of expansion from either European or overseas resources."
That is the situation, I think, which will confront the world. I do not know how far the planners are conscious of this fact, or what their plans are to restore normal conditions in the shortest possible space of time, but I have put down this motion mainly for the purpose of getting some indication from the Taoiseach as to his attitude, and the attitude of the Government, towards a problem which for us is not only internal but international. I have tabled the motion in the hope of getting from him an expression of opinion as to what he, as the Head of the Government, would plan to do, in the hope of hearing from him exactly what contacts he has made with outside nations with whom we are on friendly terms and about whose minds, to a degree at least, one would expect the Taoiseach would have some evidence in a matter like this and an idea of what might be expected from us or what it would be possible for us to do. I know that the Taoiseach and his Government may find themselves in a rather difficult and invidious position, but whatever their relationships with outside peoples may be, whether they be neutral or belligerent, I think we here ought to take stock of the world's position as it is. We ought to look to the future, not with the attitude of men who are fearful of it, or so fearful of it that we feel ourselves incapable of making any contribution towards making the future better and brighter than it appears likely to be, but rather with the attitude of people who felt we could make a contribution and who would declare we knew we could make it and would plan our own lives and our own way of life so that we could do it.
There has been called together in the United States these days what is termed the United Nations Food Conference. The agenda for that conference has been issued. It is very long and very interesting, and it is not without interest to us—very considerable interest indeed. The agenda is under many heads. A number of these deal with the question of food under the heading of "Consumption Levels and Requirements.":
"1. Character and extent of consumption deficiencies in each country.
2. Causes and consequences of malnutrition.
3. Measures for improving standards of consumption (education, etc.).
4. Reasonable national and international goals for improved food consumption."
The agenda continues under the heading of "Other Essential Agricultural Products":—
"1. Pre-war consumption levels in various countries as influenced by prosperity or depression and by buying power of the population.
2. Reasonable national and international goals for improved consumption with sustained employment and expanded industrial activity."
Then, there are measures for the direction of production towards commodities the supply of which should be increased. That is really fundamental. I think we could not but be interested in that.
"Measures for shifting production out of commodities in chronic surplus."
It will be very interesting to see what products are in chronic surplus.
"Measures for improving agricultural productivity and efficiency; measures for development and conservation of agricultural population; facilitation and improvement of distribution; the relation of national and international economic policies to agricultural problems, with special reference to the facilitation of the movement of agricultural products in commerce; the expansion of international trade; broad policies for ensuring increased production and consumption in general; the improvement of agricultural marketing, processing and distribution; special measures for wider food distribution; improvements of consumption of low income groups; international disposition of commodies in over supply; buffer stocks and commodity arrangements to assure equitable price and adequate supplies."
I should like to hear from the Taoiseach whether we are examining our situation here under the various headings in that agenda. I do not think there is any country in the world, relative to its size, which can make the same contribution as this island of ours towards restoring to normal the world's food supplies. If we are ignored in this matter, I say that the peoples collected there are not doing their job to the full, and are not making the right approach towards a solution of the world's most difficult post-war problem. Here in this country, relative to its size, we have the finest and purest live stock in the world, full of health and vigour. I am convinced that normal agricultural conditions cannot be restored on the Continent of Europe without the aid of live stock from Ireland. We ought to plan our internal affairs in such a way that, when the time comes, we will be able to make a major contribution towards the restoration of normality there. I should like to feel that we are internationally recognised as being capable of making such a contribution, and that we ought to declare publicly to all the peoples concerned that we are prepared to make such a contribution. I feel that there are all sorts of things which we need to do with our live stock here. We may have to regulate its production, its slaughter or its retention from slaughter in a way which, at the moment, may not appeal to quite a number of our citizens.
I put down this motion because I feel that, in the situation which exists in the world to-day, we are fortunate not to be engaged in arms, but we ought to be planning to meet the post-war conditions. I hope the Taoiseach will be able to tell us whether or not he has contacts with people abroad with a view to ensuring that we will be aided and advised as to how we can make a major contribution to European agricultural recovery and the establishment of conditions of social order which can only be brought about when men and women have enough to eat. The motion asks that the Government should keep in close touch with Governments abroad. That is the kernel of the question. I think we can do something in a positive way, and I think we should be at pains not only to make that known but to proceed to carry out our work. There are aspects of this matter from the agricultural and technical point of view into which it is perhaps undesirable that I should enter. I think I have said sufficient to put before the House my general approach to the question. I hope the House will agree that the motion is worthy of support, and that we will have from the Taoiseach such an indication of policy as will satisfy us all that the considerable reserves of this country will be utilised to the full for the betterment of suffering humanity.
