The Combined Raw Materials Board was a temporary World War II government agency that allocated the combined economic resources of the United States and Britain. It was set up by President
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
and Prime Minister
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...
on January 26, 1942. Later Canada
participated as an associated member in many of the Board's decisions.
Rosen finds that the Board concentrated on difficult but non-controversial commodity problems. As the war ended its commodity committees were enlarged to include representatives of other nations. The Board closed down at the end of December 1945.
Mission
Roosevelt and Churchill set the Board's mission as:
:a. Be composed of a representative of the British Government and a representative of the U.S. Government. The British member will represent and act under the instruction of the Minister of Supply.
:b. Plan the best and speediest development, expansion and use of the raw material resources under the jurisdiction or control of the two Governments, and make the recommendations necessary to execute such plans. Such recommendations shall be carried out by all parts of the respective Governments.
:c. In collaboration with others of the United Nations work toward the best utilisation of their raw material resources, and, in collaboration with the interested nation or nations, formulate plans and recommendations for the development, expansion, purchase, or other effective use of their raw materials.
The leaders were William L. Batt from the U.S. and Sir
Clive Baillieu (both in Washington) and
Lord Beaverbrook
William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook (25 May 1879 – 9 June 1964), was a Canadian-British newspaper publisher and backstage politician who was an influential figure in British media and politics of the first half of the 20th century ...
in London.
Activities
The Board was a coordinating body. In February 1943 it set up a Combined Copper Board and in March 1943 it set up a new Combined Rubber Committee.
[''Keesing's Contemporary Archives'',
Volume IV-V, June, 1943 p. 5806]
See also
*
Combined Food Board The Combined Food Board was a temporary World War II government agency that allocated the combined economic resources of the United States and the United Kingdom. It was set up by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill ...
*
Combined Production and Resources Board
*
Military production during World War II
Notes
Further reading
* {{cite book, author=Coakley, Robert W. and Richard M. Leighton , title=Global Logistics and Strategy: 1943 - 1945, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xGghoI3Ib2UC&pg=PA279, year=1968, publisher=Government Printing Office, location=Washington, pages=279–85
* Gordon, R. A. "International Programming of the Distribution of Resources: A Symposium: III. the Combined Raw Materials Board." ''Journal of the American Statistical Association'' (1944) 39#227 pp: 291-296
in JSTOR* Livermore, Shaw. "International Control of Raw Materials." ''The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science'' (1951): 157-165
in JSTOR* Rosen, S. McKee. ''The combined boards of the Second World War: An experiment in international administration'' (Columbia University Press, 1951)
* Wendt, Paul. "The control of rubber in World War II." ''Southern Economic Journal'' (1947): 203-227. IN jstor
United Kingdom–United States relations
Military logistics of World War II