MEMBERS OF U.N. COMPARED

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26395, 13 April 1951, Page 3

MEMBERS OF U.N. COMPARED

COUNTRIES’ STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT DR. W. B. SUTCH’S VIEWS (New Zealand Press Association) - WELLINGTON, April 12. The big split in the United Nations was that between developed and under-developed countries, Dr. W. B. Sutch told a meeting of the Wellington branch of the Economics Society to-night. Dr. Sutch discussed aspects of the economic and social work of the United Nations. He has been a New Zealand representative on the organisation's Economic and Social Council. “When you get to a United Nations discussion, you often discover that the man next to you is well-educated and with liberal views personally, but that he has not the advantage of a developed country behind him,” said Dr. Sutch. “The developed countries in the United Nations are very few. Canada, Australia and New Zealand are classed as developed, though each one is quite under-developed. Great areas of the world are not represented, and some are perhaps too well represented. New Zealand and Australia are perhaps among these latter. “Small countries like New Zealand and Iceland have one vote each, and large countries like India have only one vote. In the United Nations, this one-man-one-vote, whatever, the size of the man, is a very curious thing.” Dr. Sutch paid a high tribute to New Zealand's Department of External Affairs. “I was very well fed on every problem I had to handle,” he said. “I nad one of the advantages of a developed country. You could always pick the New Zealanders. Our delegates were always equipped with big, fat bags carrying files and material.

“The New Zealand delegates were always hard-working, partly because they have not learned how to play, and partly because we do have a Civil Service. We have a department that knows something about these things.

“It was a pity to see foreigners sometimes sitting there with a bundle of papers and not knowing how to deal, with them, because they came from under-developed countries. There are countries without taxation or education departments.”