RUHR COAL PRODUCTION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-01617A000100210001-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 25, 2013
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: March 30, 1948
• Content Type: MEMO

Declassified in Part- Sanitized Copy Approved forRelease2013/07/25 : CIA-RDP78-01617A000100210001-6 .......,
W W
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4 A
at
Director, CIA
Assistant Director, ORE
Ruhr Coal Production
50 larch 11148
- 2-2
1. Ever since the clomp of hostilities In Gerarzy,
the food situation in the RUhr has been described* is
both official and unofficial reports, as more or leas
acute. To date, no intemation has been received by
ORE that the shortage of basic rations has been solved*
2. The reports of the Military (averment on the
subjects of food and coal take approxieately two months
to reach ORB. Other official comments an the natter
received during this time lag (see attached citations
for examples) have, however, not contradicted earlier
reports.
3. In view of the foregoing, ORB credits, and has
ae yet received no official data to discredit, a
21 March New York Times article from PrankfUrt quoting
an official RUhr MG appeal for an improved rationing
system. According to the New York Tilltea the appeal
stated that:
a, the underground miners were getting less
food than had been guaranteed;
b. the quality of Ruhr food during the past
month probably had reached its lowest point in
two years;
C. the normal conamer in the Ruhr bad re?
ceived no official meat ration for at least flee
weeks;
d. neither the underground nor the surface
'miner has received his full ration;
S. statistics of the Ruhr District Pood
Office showed that in January the undergromad
miner received 3,640 calories daily out of
4,050 calories on the schedule, and that,
despite some Improvement in Pebruary,,it la
estimated that the ration did not exceed 3,600
calories a day;
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/07/25: CIA-RDP78-01617A000100210001-6
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/07/25: CIA-RDP78-01617A000100210001-6
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/07/25: CIA-RDP78-01617A000100210001-6
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/07/25: CIA-RDP78-01617A000100210001-6 - -
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f. these shortages had been caused by the.
failure to meat the nornel consumer ration of
1,400 calories a day and the failure to meet the
ration on the miners supplementary woOters card;
g* during the last month the normal consumer
ration amounted to only 1,350 calories a ors and
in the more important areas, such as?Essen. it
was 1,135 calories a day;
it, items such as meat and fat, which are
essential for the physical output of the worker
and in the preparation of the workers, meals were
almost entirely absent;
1. no meat has been celled up in the Ruhr for
at least. Live weeks for the normal consumer card
nor on his workers supplemental card for at least
five weeks.
Attachment:
THBODOBE BABBITT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/07/25: CIA-RDP78-01617A000100210001-6
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/07/25: CIA-RDP78-01617A000100210001-6
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CITATI085
1. Weekly Intelligence Report No. 89, 8 January 1948,
ODI, muse pages 8 and D1 and Pol. 2 41..- mtnimi delegation*
visit food office and union, requesting permission te
strike.
2. State Department telogron from Bremen, No. 9&
16 January 1948 Food crisis in Ruhr devrloping 4. shortage
of potatoes collections and distribution not made.
3. State Department telegram from Berlin, No. 176,
21 January 1948 -4- New minors, ration of 4,200 calories
announced, but not fully implemented.
4. Intelligence Summary ro, 26, Hq. =COM, ODDI,
2 February 1948 incentive program has not increased
productivity of miners but only number of them.
5. Hearings before the Committee an Foreign Affairs,
House of Representatives, on a Foreign Policy for a
Port-War Recovery program. Statement of Lewis H. Drama,
Chairman of the Board, Johne4tanville Corporation,
10 February 1948. (Here is presented the viewpoint of an
American industrialist the made a special study of Germany
at the request of the United States occupation authorities.)
a. p. 1013. "insufficient food in the Ruhr is
the foundation of the vicious eyelet that leads through
coal shortages and steel shortages to shortages in
every economic sector of Germany and in fact all
Lurope.*
b. p. 1041. "In a section of the Ruhr, very
recently, potatoes, the biggest item in the German
worker's diet next to bread, were unobtainable on
the ration cards for almost 4 weeks."
6. MI5 No. 240, 17 February 1948 -- North Rhine
Lostphalian Food Ministry says only supplies of fish and
bread fully net,
7. Soni-monthly Military Government Report no. 84
for the US Occupied Area of Gormany, OtnUB, Public
Information Office, 20 February 1948 -- Failure to regain
Uovember coal peak due to deterioration of food situation
in Ruhr.
8. Estimate of the Situation, ODDI, EUCOM, 1 March 1948,
Pass 14, Paragraph 1 -- walkout of Ruhr miners duo to food
situation.
, Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/07/25: CIA-RDP78-01617A000100210001-6