U.N. AID PLEDGED

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31497, 11 October 1967, Page 17

U.N. AID PLEDGED

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) NEW YORK, Oct. 10. Delegates of 101 nations yesterday pledged , a total of more than SUSIB2m worth of aid to help struggling nations with loans and technical aid in 1968.

The money, raised at the annual pledging conference of the United Nations Development Programme, was about slom more than last year with several nations still to announce their contributions.

The funds will be used to provide pre-dnvestment loans and technical assistance to the developing nations, many of which are in dire need of help as the terms of world trade swing further against them.

The United States, as always, was the biggest contributor pledging s7sm of the total sum. Threat To Peace

At the start of the conference, Mr Paul Hoffman, head of the United Nations Development Programme called

for an onslaught on poverty, which he termed a major threat to world peace. The increased pledges pleased United Nations officials but the total is still far short of the the s3som which the Secret-ary-General, U Thant, has set as the programme’s eventual target by 1970. Mr Hoffman appealed to delegates from more than 130 nations gathered in the General Assembly hall to step up their contributions in their own interest as well as that of the poorer nations. Decline In Aid

■ He lamented a recent decline in the flow of development resources “at a time when every dollar of aid can accomplish more than ever before.” Mr Hoffman said there was an increasingly close relationship between global development and global peace.

It was a matter of record that since 1958 no country with a per capita income of $750 a year or more had suffered a major violent upheaval.

There had been an average of two major outbreaks of violence in 32 different countries where incomes averaged only $lOO a year.

Other donations, besides that pledged by the United States, included $1,302,000 from Australia and a provisional $NZ420,000 from New Zealand. Britain pledged £sm.