Drastic measures were required. On 18 November, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) approved and forwarded to President Franklin Roosevelt a memorandum from Somervell recommending cuts in non-military shipments.[46] Specifically, Somervell proposed eliminating the American contribution to the UK Import Program of 40 sailings per month, reducing Lend-Lease to the UK by 12 sailings per month, those to the USSR by 10, and cutting civilian relief to Europe by 34.[47] Conway enlisted Harry Hopkins, Roosevelt's chief advisor, in putting the WSA's case to the president: that it could not ask the British "to bear the brunt of our failure to utilize our ships properly."[48] Roosevelt instructed the WSA to negotiate a cut in the UK Import Program for December 1944, January 1945 and February 1945 with the British, asked the Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion to investigate the labor situation at the shipyards, and told the JCS to get the theaters to break up the pools of idle shipping and improve turnaround times.[49] COMZ managed to unload 115 ships in November. The port commanders improved the discharge rate from 327 long tons (332 t) per ship per day in October to 457 long tons (464 t) per ship per day in November by offering incentives such as extra leave to their best performing hatch crews.[50] On 6 December, the JCS prohibited selective unloading and directed that shipping requirements be modified to match actual discharge capacities. Each theater was ordered to establish a shipping control agency that would ensure compliance with these directives.[49] In the ETO, the shipping control agency consisted of the Chief of Staff of COMZ, Major General Royal B. Lord; his Assistant Chief of Staff (G-4) at COMZ, Brigadier General James H. Stratton; and Franklin.[41] Somervell ordered 25 of the 35 Liberty ships that had been engaged in the cross-Channel service and ships that had been sitting idle with non-urgent supplies after being partially unloaded to return to the United States. The latter resulted in 35,000 long tons (36,000 t) of pierced steel plank and other surfacing for airfields being returned on 21 ships, only to be shipped back again on the next convoy
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