Mr. MARSHALL. For the production season just ended, for the crops which will be available this year, including the beet and continental cane production of last fall, and the offshore production, which is now being harvested, that is the 1946-47 season, continental beet, 1,541,000 short tons of sugar, raw value. If you want it, I could give you a copy of this table.

Senator SPARKMAN. I thought it would take just a minute to give the figures.

Mr. MARSHALL. The continental cane is 461,000 short tons.
Senator SPARKMAN. How much maple?

Mr. MARSHALL. Hawaii-excuse me just a minute.

Senator SPARKMAN. Go ahead.

Senator FLANDERS. I am interested in your preoccupation with maple sugar.

Senator SPARKMAN. I am trying to get some information for myself. I am not trying to include maple sugar under the controls.

Mr. MARSHALL. Hawaii, 800,000 short tons. We have some indications now that it may be 850,000 short tons.

Puerto Rico, 1,000,000 short tons.

The Virgin Islands, 6,000 short tons.

The total for that group is 3,808,000 short tons.

The preliminary report on maple sugar production for 1946 was 337,000 pounds.

Senator FLANDERS. Does that include sirup, the sugar content of the sirup?

Mr. MARSHALL. No, sir. The sirup is separate. I can give you that separately. Maple sirup, 1,354,000 gallons.

Senator FLANDERS. I might say that that was production which was reduced by the OPA price ceiling being put on it.

The OPA price ceiling was set so low that it did not pay to harvest the crop.

Senator SPARKMAN. It discouraged, rather than stimulated.
Senator FLANDERS. Yes.

Mr. MARSHALL. Has not the production been quite low during the last 2 years for weather reasons?

Senator FLANDERS. Yes, God helped, but God helped the OPA to reduce the crop.

Senator SPARKMAN. Just one other question.

You said we would probably have shipping difficulties for moving our sugar out of Cuba. Why is that true?

Mr. MARSHALL. Well, I had reference to this, sir: Already we are having some difficulty in getting enough ships into the Cuban sugar trade to transport all of the sugar that we want to move. There are several difficulties. One is the very large crop in Cuba this year, and it requires just about a constant placement of a ship at every available port in Cuba continuously throughout the year.

During a period when there is any stringency in shipping that is quite difficult to do, but that is what we are having to try to do.

There is, of course a very heavy demand at the moment for a large volume of emergency shipping to take coal and grain to Europe.

Because of some difficulties that have been explored by the Maritime and Fisheries Committee of the House during the last few days, a commitment, I believe, has been obtained from the Chairman of the Maritime Commission, in connection with the recent extension of the authority to use Maritime vessels, that such vessels would not be sent to Cuba.

We had been hoping to fall back upon the backlog of Maritime vessels to move our sugar in case we got into difficulties in moving it with private vessels.

Senator FLANDERS. I have heard something about the troubles of the car ferry service to Cuba. Is that a factor of any particular importance in moving the crop?

Mr. MARSHALL. Yes, sir, it is a factor of some importance. The car ferry, so-called seatrain, has moved a fairly substantial volume of sugar. The seatrain has ceased operations because of labor difficulties in Cuba.

Senator FLANDERS. The labor difficulties are in Cuba but not on this side.

Mr. MARSHALL. Yes. In the past they have had some difficulties here, I believe, but the current difficulty is in Cuba.

Senator BRICKER. What is the nature of that difficulty?

Mr. MARSHALL. It is a requirement that the seatrain upon arrival in Havana must unload packaged cargo and reload it into cars for distribution in Cuba.

Senator BRICKER. Is that a statute or labor union?

Mr. MARSHALL. It is a Government decree.

Senator FLANDERS. Have you any other questions?

Senator BRICKER. This allocation, international allocation, that is made without regard to the domestic production?

Mr. MARSHALL. No, sir. In making the international allocation each country reports all of the production available from its own country or from any areas of supply that it normally takes. Each country reports its requirements in total. Each country is then given an allocation based upon such requirements as related to the total supply.

In the case of the United States, as an example, we have an allocation of 6,800,000 tons. We first take into consideration all of our own supplies, and then we draw enough from the foreign sources, Cuba in this instance, to make up the difference between our domestic supplies and the total allocation.

Senator FLANDERS. I have here a report giving the details of that allocation, both as to the sources of sugar and the countries to which it is allocated. I suggest that we include this in the record.

(The information referred to is as follows:)

[Advance copy for release in morning papers of Saturday, February 21, 1947]

IEFC RECOMMENDS WORLD SUGAR ALLOCATIONS FOR 1947

INTERNATIONAL EMERGENCY FOOD COUNCIL,

Washington, D. C.

Distribution among 24 consuming nations or areas of 14,986,000 short tons (raw value) of sugar was recommended today by the International Emergency Food Council.

Included in the recommended distribution are 8,703,000 short tons of sugar to move in international trade. The remainder of the recommended allocation6,283,000 short tons-is composed of sugar consumed in the countries where it is produced. The attached table shows the sources of export supply and the amounts of sugar to be provided from each source to each country receiving a recommended allocation.

The 14,986,000 tons of sugar estimated as available for allocation is 4,083,000 short tons more than the amount allocated in 1946. The increase in allocation flows from generally greater production in all areas. However, one important prewar source of large sugar exports-the Philippines-will not only be unable to provide any exports in 1947, but is scheduled for imports of 30,000 tons this year to meet urgent hospital and other welfare needs. This contrasts with average prewar exports-mostly to the United States of nearly 1,000,000 tons annually.

In distributing the available 1947 supply the IEFC Committee on Sugar recommended that every nation receive enough from indigenous supplies and imports to provide at least 75 percent of its prewar average per capita consumption. No country falls below this figure. Some importing nations, notably the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, receive recommended allocations of amounts which will provide more than 75 percent of the prewar per capita consumption.

The recommended distribution includes 736,000 tons from undesignated sources of supply. This is to be procured by importing nations from (a) the Netherlands East Indies, and certain South American countries whose total available export supplies are not now known with certainty; and (b) supplies of free sugar (unallocated and sold to any nation which can negotiate a purchase) in Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Sugar is known to exist in relatively large quantities in these areas. However, since the exact amounts available for export are not known, the allocations are not at present related to specific sources. Such relationship will be established later when additional information is received as to the exact export supplies available.

The allocation from undesignated sources, the Committee on Sugar explains, is made in order to establish greater flexibility in the international trade in sugar. To further this objective nearly all importing countries for which allocations are recommended have been assigned small percentages of their total allocation from these undesignated sources of supply.

The table showing allocations recommended and sources of supply for each claimant country is attached. (See p. 14.)

98445-47--2

10

74

Senator BRICKER. Is our apportioned amount from Cuba, for instance, decreased if our domestic production goes above the estimated amount?

Mr. MARSHALL. No, sir, not after the allocation has been made; because we have allocated to us 200,000 short tons that must come either from increase in production above those estimates or from some new source of supply, such as Java.

Senator BRICKER. That is all.

Senator FLANDERS. I would like to inquire whether an account is kept of sugar stock in this country; and if so, is it kept by your Department or by the OPA?

Mr. MARSHALL. Our Department has kept for years a record of stocks in the hands of primary distributors; that is, the processors and refiners and importers.

Senator FLANDERS. There is no estimate kept of the stocks of refined sugar ready for distribution?

Mr. MARSHALL. Well, if you mean refined sugar in the hands of primary distributors, yes; if you mean in the hands of wholesalers and retailers, no; we do not have such current records.

Senator FLANDERS. Would you care to make any observation on the rumors which come from various parts of the country as to warehouses running out of their ears with refined sugar?

Mr. MARSHALL. Yes, sir. Most of those reports come from the western part of the United States or from the beet-sugar areas in the East. The beet-sugar crop is processed largely during the months of October to January. That is the entire crop. The sugar processed from the beets during that period must last for the entire marketing year, until the new crop comes in in October.

Therefore, the warehouses are necessarily filled at the time the beet sugar is produced, and then they are gradually evenly emptied over a 12 months' period.

If that sugar were taken out of the warehouses to keep them from being full, it would, under the ration system have to be moved across the country to the East to fill the area where no sugar is produced.

Later on in the year there would be no sugar in the West, and we would have to ship cane sugar to that area.

Senator FLANDERS. Can I tell when I dip into the sugar bowl whether I am dipping out cane or beet sugar?

Mr. MARSHALL. If you can, you are far better than I.

cannot.

No, sir; you

Senator FLANDERS. Are there any other questions? Senator BRICKER. You say there are 200,000 tons shortage in our allocation that has to be made up from other sources. If our domestic production runs more than 200,000 tons, say, beyond the estimated amount of our production, then will that be reallocated or reassigned to some other country, or will it remain here and add to our allocated amount?

Mr. MARSHALL. Well, it would require a reallocation, or a redetermination. It could either be added to the allocation, merely added to the stock at the end of the year, and put us in a more comfortable