The UN Development Decade Gordon Evans, M. G. K. Pierson
Biography Travestied Jeffrey Sinunons, Jack Fishman German Farmers Rolf Gardiner
Shift to the Centre Lionel h. Grouse
The Enahoro Case Dingle Foot, QC, MP Island on the Run M. P. Golding The Forgotten Tenth W. J. M. Mackenzie THE UN DEVELOPMENT DECADE Sts,—Mr. Nicholas Davenport's article calling for an international monetary system which does not burden the developing countries with debt or high rates of interest, and for the rich countries to work out a new relationship with them as partners in commercial enterprise, is timely. The Economic and Social Council will shortly be finalising the agenda for the UN Conference on Trade and Development to meet early next year. It is certain that before the end of the decade fundamental changes will have taken place in the system of international trade.
As a corollary. to the trade conference, a parallel conference is needed on problems of international liquidity, with the intention of devising a system of international budgeting which will guarantee to the developing countries the purchasing power they need in order to maintain the flow of imports essential to their development programmes. Achievement of the Decade objective will require a programme of internationally concerted action which will enable high rates of growth to be maintained in both de- veloped and developing countries, without inflation and without the creation of stultifying imbalances of payments.
The flow of conventional international lending is within sight of its limits as indicated by figures recently made available to the Development Assis- tance Committee of the OECD. These showed that the annual debt service of the developing countries has more than doubled in the past five years, to an annual level of about $2.5 billion in 1962.
GORDON EVANS
Secretary for Economic and Social Affairs The United Nations AssoCiation, 25 Charles Street, W I
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