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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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through the native quarter, very much against the advice of others, and out into the country districts where you saw how the native people lived. He said, “Oh, they're just terribly poor.”

He went on to say, “You see, they're so poor, so desperately poor - part of this is the war, they can't get anything. But, he said, “an American sailor can sell his shirt; the shirt off his back can be sold to these people for quantities of goods that are really valuable. They have nothing.”

The President said, “The best thing we have done is to distribute little bags of coffee and little bags of tea. Now, the Arabs love coffee, and some of the other people there love tea, and they haven't been able to get any since before the war began. It's a dreadful deprivation to them. So what did our bright propaganda forces think up and do, what did the Air Force do, but fly over whole large areas dropping small bags - you know, like teabags - small bags of tea and coffee. Why, this country went crazy! The Americans were bringing this. You see, this was done in preparation for my visit, partly - done to add emphasis to the fact that the Americans understood what was really happening to them, and that the Americans really cared.”

Well, that was very important to him, and the episode of the shirt - of how much a shirt would bring. I mean, he actaully told us. I've forgotten what the items were, now,





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