WORLD BANK LOANS

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26353, 22 February 1951, Page 7

WORLD BANK LOANS

Help For Poorer Countries (Rec. 8.40 p.m.) SANTIAGO (Chile), February 20. Mr Trygve Lie, the United Nations Secretary-General, called to-day for "bold international action to improve the lot of the two-thirds of the human race still living in poverty and insecurity. Otherwise, he said, there would be no hope for peace. Mr Lie was addressing the Chilean National Congress before attending the opening session of the United Nanons Economic and Social Council, which took place in Santiago to-day. Mr Lie said that the present rearmament programmes should not be allowed to interfere with the provision of loans and Investments to underdeveloped areas.

He said that 500.000.000 people who had achieved national freedom within the short life span of the United Nations live almost without exception in underdeveloped areas. They, and others in many countries that had hardly begun to develop their resources, would not be content to live on in the grinding poverty that had always before been their fate. The United Nations and specialised agencies had made a good beginning in answering the appeals of these peoples foq assistance, but a vastly expanded effort was required. 4 , Later to-day the President of Chile (Mr Gebriel Gonzalez Videla), in his welcoming speech to delegates from 18 countries, including the Soviet bloc, attending the opening session of the Economic and Social Council, demanded that the World Bank relax its strict policies in granting economic aid to underdeveloped countries. He said that the World Bank showed a notorious tendency to ignore requests for loans toward .economic development. “Therefore it is apparent that a change in policy should be affected. We believe that this can come about through this council. Nearly COO delegates and clerical workers came from United Nations headquarters in New York for the session of the council. The council expects to complete the drafting if the Human Rights Convention, including the Freedom of Information, and the Freedom of the PresZ. It also expects to conclude work on two problems first taken up at Geneva last year—a special study of the means of reducing unemployment m underdeveloped countries, and the balance of payments in international trade.