Inspecting cotton and grain supplies at Latafiyeh, Iraq, 1942Collection: Papers of Leonard Knight Elmhirst
Level: Series
RefNo: LKE/MESC
Extent: 3 boxes
Title: LKE MESC: Middle East Supply Centre
Date: 1938-1956

Description: Surviving records include: minutes; correspondence with organisations; reports on aspects of agriculture (including machinery, crops, cultivation, irrigation, supplies, rations of oils and fats, and education); diary notes, photographs, and ephemera. The material provides a broad assessment of the industrial and agricultural resources of Egypt; Iraq; Palestine; Turkey; Persia; Cyprus, Syria and Lebanon; Hadramaut, Yemen and Jordan; East Africa and Sudan during World War II. The resulting official report, 'Agricultural Report No 5, Middle East Supply Centre' Anglo-American Agricultural Mission, Jul-Nov 1942 is included. This report includes references to postwar planning and reconstruction.

AdminHist: Leonard Elmhirst was appointed as an Agricultural Adviser to the Middle East Supply Centre in August 1942 while employed by the Ministry of War Transport. His mission was to serve as a British representative of an Anglo-American agricultural survey of the Middle East region undertaken in the latter half of 1942. The survey examined basic agricultural resources, methods, and infrastructure. It also reported on agricultural education needs in the region. The MESC headquarters were in Cairo. A principal goal was to encourage agricultural and industrial self-sufficiency in the region, decreasing the burden of shipping food and other basic products to the region during wartime.

For more information consult the online catalogue reference LKE/MESC.