Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 27, No. 12. 1964.

Concentration Needed

Concentration Needed

Although our aid is generally sensibly spent and to good purpose, New Zealand is an extremely insignificant donor country because of the territorial expanse and densely populated areas over which aid is spread. To be of real help in promoting economic growth it would be more expedient to concentrate the same amount of aid in a smaller area. £1½m a year in the Pacific Islands, for which we are specifically responsible for anyway, would show a real result. With the racial problems and economic immaturity there, this policy could save New Zealand much trouble in the future.

Our justification for giving must be put on a rather nebulous basis of conformity or humanitarianism. We cannot hope to gain any lasting defensive or political advantages in South East Asia when our aid is so meagre. Even the amounts poured in by the United States show that the elimination of communism is just not demonstrable. We are under pressure from the rest of the world to give, and in future to increase it.