Cod Liver Oil, Orange Juice and The Marshall Plan

Aid for Europe

In 1947 the Truman Doctrine, set to contain the Soviets from becoming more powerful, stepped up the pressure to “support free peoples” by sending General George Marshall to Europe to assess the situation.  He returned stating that the coldest winter on record in Europe was having a devastating effect and that US help was urgently needed.

What was officially titled the European Recovery Programme, nicknamed the Marshall Plan, was set up to get aid to Europe quickly.   The aid was in the form of food, grants to buy equipment, improvements to transport systems, raw materials, fertiliser, vehicles and fuel. One reference source said everything “from medicine to mules”.

These pictures, loaned to the Archive by Mrs Pat Windsor, show some local children, in about March 1951, clutching their bottles of concentrated orange juice and cod liver oil at a local distribution centre.  

 

This picture  shows Bernard Braine, just elected as MP for Billericay, Mr H R Tutt, Chairman of the Food Control Committee and Rev Stanford, Rector of Hadleigh with a group of “bonny youngsters” after the Welfare Foods meeting at the Kenneth Road Food Office.
The Pat Windsor Collection
Pamela Polley, aged 2½, of Shipwrights Drive.
The Pat Windsor Collection
Graham and Gillian Shaw from Church Road, Great Tarpots.
The Pat Windsor Collection

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