ECONOMIC AID TO ASIANS

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27751, 31 August 1955, Page 5

ECONOMIC AID TO ASIANS

Mr Roy Deplores “Hand-Outs”

COLOMBO PLAN PRAISED

“Hand-outs” of aid to South-east Asian countries were not good, because they destroyed the self-respect of the persons who received the aid. said Mr W. T. Roy in an address to the convention on international relations in Christchurch yesterday. Mr Roy said that much aid was given on the condition that the receiving nations gave some evidence of “toeing the line.” Economic aid should be given without any political strings attached. It should not be given to countries that were obviously communist, but no commercial concessions or political safeguards rhould be demanded in exchange. It was humiliating for the distribution of aid to be supervised by the donor. “We must be prepared to accept that a country should have freedom to decide for itself whether it shall remain neutral,” he said. “The Colombo Plan is the best effort by the Western Powers. It carries out to a laige extent what the West most desires—to produce stability within the countries. The only thing is that it is limited. Unless we are prepared to live with these nations we stand a very good chance of perishing in the flames of our own making.”

Mr Roy said that the Colombo Plan had been formulated in 1950. and provided that £1 686.000.000 be spent in a six years. This sum had been increased by £4,000,000 or £6,000,C00 when Canada and the United States agreed to participate. South Africa was the only Commonwealth country that was not a contributor. New Zealand originally agreed to contribute £3,000,000 in six years, but later raised is contribution by one-third. “In no circumstances was the aid a hand-out,” "he said. “It was essentially a mutual-benefit arrangement. It essentially retained the self-respect of the countries receiv’ng it. “The Colombo Plan is a family affair erected bv the Commonwealth and run by the Commonwea’th. It is well worth preserving in the world, being an instrument which may keep peace in a great measure than it may. at the moment, appear,” Mr Roy said. “Great Generosity” of U.S.

Mr W. R. Lascelles said he was a firm supporter of the United Nations. He was surprised that Mr Roy had not p?id anv tribute to the British Commonwealth, other than mention the Colombo Plan, and he had not mentioned the “great generosity” of the* United States, which had made enormous benefactions to mankind. An interjector: Arms! Mr Lascelles said that the gifts of vaccines and food the United States had made probably greater than those made bv the rest of the world together. United States aid had gone into starving stomachs and diseased bodies, brown bodies at that. Nothing had been said by Mr Roy of the interference by Russia in the internal affairs of China, Mr Lascelles continued. Nothing had been said of the pronaganda put out by Russia. In the opinion of the vast majority of New Zealanders, Russia was responsible for world tension.

Cries from the audience: Rot! Don’t be silly! Shut up! Soviet Russia had been built from revolution, not evolution. Mr Lascelles said. Two million peasant farmers had been killed because they were kulaks, millions were incarcerated in slave camps, and from time to time even the leaders of the country were liquidated.

The South-east Asian Treaty Organisation and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation represented the most important contributions to the safety of democracy throughout the world, he said.