SUGGESTED POLICY FOR FOREIGN AID PROGRAMME IN U.S.

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 October 1949, Page 7

SUGGESTED POLICY FOR FOREIGN AID PROGRAMME IN U.S.

WASHINGTON, October 2.—The United States Chamber of Commerce recommended today that treaties assuring the fair treatment of American capital should be a prerequisite of technical or other aid to foreign countries.

The chamber said that the United States’ foreign investment programme if handled to best advantage, should create a better attitude on the part of foreign nations towards American enterprise and capital, and thereby give an impetus to the economic development of the world and the maintenance of peace. It warned, however, that, aid should be “restricted to countries which, through treaties and agreements or financial guarantees provide an assurance of fair treatment for American private capital.” The chamber recommended that the foreign-investment programme should be on a modest and carefully circumscribed basis to avoid any charge of either paternalism or imperialism; that private enterprise should form the cornerstone of the programme; and that aid projects should be confined to countries where there was a genuine desire and ability to co-operate. The chamber said that Congress and the Administration should make it clear that the Government had no intention of providing credit when private capital was available or when a foreign country maintained conditions unfavourable to investment, and that an outflow of capital was not necessary for American domestic prosperity.