Where charity begins
The Government and the Home Secretary are to be congratulated on their decision to switch from a policy of foreign aid to Uganda to the assistance of the still unsettled Ugandan Asian minority in this country. Despite the excellent work that had been done for these people by Mr Carr's Resettlement Committee, many problems remain. And, since the Government is also acting wisely, humanely and properly in increasing the number of vouchers available to Kenyan holders of British passports, it can be assumed that most of the £6 million can be quickly and effectively spent on community relations. But the really propitious point in the Government's action is that the money to be used in this way is to be taken from funds originally intended for the egregious Sergeant Amin and his thugs, and many of progressive mind have even suggested that it sould still have been paid.
The decision to cut off aid to Uganda also comes at a time useful for the general debate now going on about foreign aid programmes. It would be premature to say that Professor Bauer and his disciples have convinced a majority of those interested in the subject that aid as hitherto disbursed, whether in tied or untied form, whether through individual governments or through some such body as the United Nations, does more harm than good, but few would now share the optimistic and Utopian promises held out in the Pearson report. Because it so colours the whole relationship between developed and undeveloped countries the debate on aid is a vital one, but It must be continued alongside discussion of the next round of the GATT negotiations, and the evolution of the tariff policies of the European community. In recent years the 'liberal disciples of traditional aid programmes have scorned the old slogan of "trade, not aid," but the development of sensible policies by individual countries, through GATT, and through Europe could put the life back into what remains the only policy genuinely respectful of the hard-won independence of Third World countries.
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