With foodgrain being diverted to the war effort in Europe and Bengal’s transportation system grinding to a halt, people had neither access to food close by nor the means to go about their livelihood to earn or purchase whatever little food they could. In July 1943, the Board of Economic Warfare, a US government body, published a document, Indian Agriculture and Food Problems, which predicted famine and “hundreds of thousands of deaths from starvation”. On August 25, The New York Times printed a cabled message from Calcutta’s mayor to New York City’s mayor and US President Franklin Roosevelt: “Acute distress prevails in the city of Calcutta and the province of Bengal due to shortage of foodstuffs. Entire population is being devitalised and hundreds dying of starvation. Appeal to you and Mr Churchill in the name of starving humanity to arrange immediate shipment of food grains from America, Australia and other countries.”