SPECTRE OF REVOLUTION

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33032, 27 September 1972, Page 15

SPECTRE OF REVOLUTION

Warning by McNamara

(N.Z.P.A .-Reuter—Copyright) WASHINGTON, Sept. 26. The president of the World Bank (Mr Robert McNamara) has called for urgent international action to bring hundreds of millions of people "out of inhuman deprivation,” and has given a warning that if action is not taken soon, the spectre of revolution will have to be faced.

“There is no rational alternative to moving towards policies of greater social equity,” he said. “. . . . It is only a question of time before a decisive choice must be made between the political costs of reform and the political risks of rebellion.”

Mr McNamara called for a broad programme of social justice and equity to help the 40 per cent of the developing world’s population, whose individual lives, he said, were stagnating in human terms. Suggesting more aid from the rich nations, and new programmes in the developing countries, to increase the income of this 40 per cent, Mr McNamara proposed the creation of new public works projects. He also said that institutional reforms to redistribute economic power were critically required in many developing countries; these would involve land reform, tax reform, credit and banking reform, and corporate reform.