BACKWARD AREAS OF WORLD

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25714, 28 January 1949, Page 7

BACKWARD AREAS OF WORLD

U.S. Proposal For Development

PLANS NOW BEING PREPARED (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

(Rec. 7 p.m.) WASHINGTON, January 26. The Secretary of State (Mr Dean Acheson) said to-day that President Truman’s programme for the development of the world’s under-developed areas must be “a two-way strdfct,” involving the co-operation of foreign governments and the United Nations. Mr Acheson, who was addressing his first press conference since his appointment as Secretary of State, said that no blueprint existed yet for carrying out Mr Truman’s programme to raise living standards in the backward areas of thp world, but the State Department was working on plans. Mr Acheson said that the primary purpose of the programme which Mr Truman mentioned in his inauguration speech, was not to get modern plumbing installed throughout the world, but to promote conditions which would increase the worth and freedom and dignity of individual people everywhere. He would not say whether the United States would guarantee private investments abroad. He emphasised the importance of creating conditions in under-developed areas where investors in a normal way could develop enterprises. It was the primary responsibility of the government of a country seeking to induce capital to tome into it to create conditions favourable to investment. Mr Acheson said that the State Department had not sent any official Note to foreign governments inviting them to pool their skills with the United States for building up underdeveloped areas. He said that the under-developed areas included the Far East, SouthEast Asia, Africa, and part of South Ameripa.