The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was established in November 1943 to aid refugees fleeing Axis aggression. After World War II, UNRRA sought to assist millions of refugees displaced by the war and its consequences. In the aftermath of the war, worldwide food shortages threatened millions with starvation and the world looked to the United States for assistance. In this footage, UNRRA's fourth council meeting convenes in Atlantic City. Director-General Herbert H. Lehman pleads for understanding among nations as a prerequisite for world peace.
Atlantic City, New Jersey, welcomes the fourth council meeting of an organization which is of major importance to the whole world. The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, UNRRA, represented by 47 nations, convenes to solve the food famine which threatens more than half a billion people left destitute by war. President Truman's plea that Americans voluntarily share a part of their food supply to help feed the many faced with starvation, is applauded by UNRRA delegates from all parts of the world. UNRRA's retiring director-general, Herbert H. Lehman, who will be succeeded by former New York Mayor La Guardia, speaks for brotherhood among nations: "The basic problems of understanding between men and between nations exist today as certainly as they existed generations ago. UNRRA has now given the first simple proof that this understanding can be attained. Now let the leaders of the United Nations profit by that experience, and lead their peoples to a world of peace and security."
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