Story of International Relations

3 CONFERENCES AT PRAGUE AND BERGEN AND THE LOOMING WAR 293

in a poverty stricken world,’ reached the same conclusion as Aykroyd in
regard to the centrality of the issue of underconsumption, albeit from
the standpoint of both public health and economic growth.^180 In early
November 1934, in consultation with John Boyd Orr, director of the
Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen and author of the National Food
Supply and Its Influence on Public Health (1934), McDougall urged the
following in respect to contemporary scientific views on nutrition:

[They] should be pushed forward in every possible way, both nationally and

internationally, in brief...the time has come when, in the interest of world

recovery and the prosperity of the peoples of the British Empire, it is neces-

sary to secure the greatest possible notice for modern ideas about nutrition.^181

In order to secure such notice, McDougall enlisted the support of
Australian officials, convincing them that policies conducive to an
improvement in ‘worldwide nutritional levels were also in Australia’s best
interest, by increasing demand for Australian agricultural exports.’^182
He also sought support in Geneva. On a visit to the seat of the LON
in March 1935, he introduced himself to Aykroyd. The latter read
McDougall’s memorandum with interest, seeing in it confirmation of
the finding in the Burnet-Aykroyd report that in various countries large
numbers of people were not sufficiently or suitably nourished.^183 The
memorandum also excited the interest of Ludwik Rajchmann, director
of the Health Section and the person who early had the ‘vision,’ Ackroyd
later observed, to expand ‘the concept of International Health work to
include nutrition.’^184
Further support in Geneva came in the form of the International
Labour Office which had been advised of the general plan of the Burnet-
Aykroyd report and had expressed a desire to cooperate in a study of the
nutrition of workers.^185 By April 9, it was in the process of preparing

(^180) F. L. McDougall, 1940, quoted in O’Brien, ‘F. L. McDougall and the Origins of the
FAO,’ 167.
(^181) F. L. McDougall, 1934, quoted in Way, A New Idea Each Day, 162.
(^182) O’Brien, ‘F. L. McDougall and the Origins of the FAO,’ 164.
(^183) Way, A New Idea Each Day, 166.
(^184) Passmore, ‘Obituary Notice: Wallace Ruddell Aykroyd,’ 246. See also Way, A New
Idea Each Day, 266.
(^185) League of Nations, Report on the Physiological Bases of Nutrition, 7.