As a result, a three-day debate took place in the Assembly of the League of Nations during which it was argued that increasing food production to meet human needs would bring prosperity to agriculture, which would overflow into industry, and bring about the needed expansion of the world economy, through what Bruce described as the marriage of health and agriculture.

This new conception of considering food in all its relationships to health, economics and politics, roused considerable enthusiasm. It was decided to consider ways and means of applying this new idea in practice. An international committee of physiologists, including Americans and Russians, was appointed to report on the food needed for health. An 'International Standard of Food Requirements' was agreed upon, which gave an indication of the amount of food needed throughout the world. A 'mixed committee' of leading authorities on nutrition, agriculture and economics was then appointed to examine and make recommendations on every aspect of the food problem, including production, transport and trade.

This committee of 20 members brought out a report on the benefits from developing the world's food supplies. A conference was called to consider what action to take to implement its recommendations. Bruce and others sent the following telegram to Boyd Orr with whom the subject had been discussed: 'Dear Brother Orr, this day we have lit a candle which, by the Grace of God's grace, will never be put out' (a reference to a speech made by Hugh Latimer when he and another Protestant were burned at the stake) (Boyd Orr, 1966, p. 119).

At the committee which had been charged to draw up the standard diet needed for health, Boyd Orr sat between the American and Russian delegates. He found that both 'co-operated harmoniously in preparing the report. When it was received, the League of Nations Assembly decided to set up another committee of financiers, economists, business men and scientists to work out the economic advantages of a world food policy.

The final report on The Relation of Health, Agriculture and Economic Policy, published by the League in 1937, indicated the lines along which the expansion of the world economy could most easily begin. It was declared a best-seller by The New York Times (Boyd Orr, 1966, p. 120). Walter Elliot and Earl De La Warr, respectively Minister and Under-Secretary for Agriculture in the United Kingdom, saw that the food problem of a 'glut' followed by a fall in food prices paid to farmers was one of under-consumption rather than overproduction.

In 1938, 22 nations, including the United States and Russia, met in conference to arrange how this new world food policy could be carried out. But the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 brought this promising development to an end. The view was expressed that if the League of Nations had devoted more time to social and economic problems than to politics, it might have succeeded in eliminating the causes of war.

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