MR. HERBERT HOOVER, President Truman’s world food investigator, sent word back to the United States on Friday [April 26] night that many districts of India are “on the edge of the precipice” of famine and appealed to the American people to “stretch every resource” to help….

In a report cabled to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture … Mr Hoover called for unlocking supplies of rice available to Siam, greater aid from Australia if possible, and speeding [up] of the American effort to send food into India.

His report said: “Indian provinces containing about 230 million people are involved in food difficulties. …But figures are a poor vehicle with which to convey the extent of the danger and the human misery involved. The causes of her food difficulties come from three directions: 1. India normally imports considerable food supplies especially from Burma. This source has been largely curtailed this year. 2. South India has suffered from a disastrous drought. 3. The standard of living of the great mass of Indian people has always been low and a marginal group has always been on the borderline of … starvation….”

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2021