·THIS BOOK DESCRIBEs the words of the Colombo Plan Co-operative Economic Development in South and South- Asia. It has been written by D. G. Bridson, of the Br Broadcasting Corporation, who has recently returned from a of the area and has therefore been able to give a first-hand impres of the notable progress that has been made. At the end of the book there is a shortened version of second annual report of the Consultative Committee which me New Delhi in October, 1953.

·PROGRESS
IN
ASIA
THE
COLOMBO PLAN
IN ACTION
LONDON
ER ATAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE

·80" THE COUNTRIES OF KASHMIR MAN PAKISTAN AREA 361,007 SQ. MILES POP. 76 MILLION NEPAL 54.000 501 POI 7 MAL INDIA AREA 1,220,000 SO. MILES WWW POP. 369 MILLION Arabian Sea Bay of COLLEGE . NGH MEDICAL Anur. N.2887 these..3.......1257. Price. 8.15.8. LIBRARY CEYLON AREA 25.332 SO. MILES POP. MILLION JAIPUR 623 MILLION a quarter of the world's population is at present increasing annually at the rate of 2.2% (134 millions) ·OUTH-EAST ASIA d South-East Asian countries e members of the Colombo Plan trive Committee are tinted grey. bers are shown thus Philippine RepuNie .but tend obserrers to meeunt 400 100 1000 teret po GREAT BRITAIN DRAWN TO THE SAME SCALE 20 PHILIPPINE REPUBLIC AREA 115,600 $0 MKES POP. MILLION THAILAND P. PARCA M297 50 MILIS TOP. 1 MILDON INDO-CHINA AREA 235.000 $Q. MILES POP. 30 MILLION CAMBOO hus NORTH BORNEON BRUNEIS FEDERATION OF MY MALAYA ANTA MM MES WO MELON O ARLARIMI MELOMARES SARAWAK 0 SINGAPORE AALA 11 10 Att); TO WON IND ON E SA AREA 721.265 SQ. MILES POP. 78 MIL ·VT Pit'on in the table on the inside bar - 50 Plar : .. 4. THE NEW DELHI CONFERENCE, 1953 Progress with Development Projects WITII MAPS, CHARTS AND 23 PHOTOGRAPHS For contenience all amounts of money Expressed in rounds sterling. Exchange rat CONTENTS 1. WHY THE COLOMBO PLAN IS NECESSARY Size of the Area Size of the Problem Resources of the Area The Area in World Economy Agriculture Comes First The Problem Tackled 2. WHAT THE PLAN IS DOING PLAN Food Means Rice Gal Oya Damodar Valley The Thai Other Power Schemes Rural Development Community Projects Pakistan's Problems Communications Industry and India Health 3. AIMS AND AID All are Helping Technical Assistance The Future .. The Economic Background External Aid w element 13002 .. TEE 1 the sin nou Mi of seint by te content and the .

·Why the Colombo Plan is necessary benger and diseasem2nywhere in the modern world are wore Canger to their own particular area; they are a potential danger to az ud prosperity and health of the whole world. They are dat my so if the arta where they are found happens to contain a quarter world's population. and South-East Asia is such an area. It has a population of some lion people-four times the population of the United Scates of A three times the population of the Soviet Union, twelve times the frin of the United Kingdom. It is an area suffering from widespread e disease and malnutrition. If you like comfortably in London or it may seem remore, but twenty-four hours in a planc will tako o from cither aty. SIZE OF TUE AREA I of us know the world as a senes of maps, but an atias can be a very are guide. As we turn its pages, wc tend to forget its wide variations tals. He someumes overlook the fact that Intuin would fit comfortably osomer of India, lust as the whole of Europe would fit into a comer the We do nos sikays remember that Asia stretches almost halfway and the globe; and when we think of Indonesia as one more string of s, we may not always realise that the suing would reach from London the heart of Siberia. This is only another way of saying that the countries of South and Southhi Asis are memily large countries, and that they extend over a very wide * Each has a strong individuality of its own and may contain many Lerent people Many are countries with a cultural history far more en chamou? wts and with religiotis older than Christianity. Both $ ·CONTENTS 1. WHY THE COLOMBO PLAN IS NECESSARY Size of the Area Size of the Problem .. .. Resources of the Area The Area in World Economy Agriculture Comes First The Problem Tackled .. . . . . 2 . .. WHAT THE PLAN IS DOING Food Means Rice Gal Oya Damodar Valley The Thal Other Power Schemes Rural Development Community Projects Pakistan's Problems Communications Industry and India Health 3. AIMS AND AID All are Helping Technical Assistance The Future .. 4 THE NEW DELHI CONFERENCE, 1953 The Economic Background Progress with Development Projects External Aid WITH MAPS, CHIARTS AND 23 PAIOTOGRATIS For commicce all amounts of money are expressed in found sterling. Escharge rates are Sitems in the sable on the inside tack cocer ·RESOURCES OF THE ARBA The wealth of any country-od therefore its standard of living depends so its natural resources and bar it can do with them. To say that the entries of South and South-East Asia have unexploited riches in raw trials and potential sources of power is to say very little. The people o those countries will derive no benefit from them until they have been put kame productive use. Some of the resources, obviously, have been exploited for a considerable een It was the posential wealth of the area that attracted every trading roteger from Vasco da Gama to the Comet. A great deal of effort has riato development of the area, and a great deal of wealth continues to en live from it. Even so, it remains as a whole deplorably under developed. bescially, except in India, it has scarcely been developed at all, apart tad a fex isolated centres which is one reason why its standard of living kri. Other factors are the pressure of the population, the high rate of teracy and the grave lack of technical skills. Most important and fundmiennal of all, however, is the primitive state of local agriculture. THE AREA IN WORLD ECONOMY The cconomy of South and South-East Asia is predominantly agriculrural. Durite the larger towns, the people live almost solely by the Land. Yet er en tods of cultivation throughout the area are little in advance of what Dette must dare been two thousand years ago. The bullock pulls the pedona plough, the paddy field is planted and hoed and harvested by hand, the rice is husked by primitive means, and only the regular course of the can answer for the modest result. It is hardly surprising thar trera Loge part of the area desert and jungle continue to reign supreme. Nics of course, that all the land under cultivation is given over to the tradition of food. The area's contribution to world coonomy is very puiderable; in return for imports of machinery and manufactured goods irrely supplies the bulk of the world's jute and rubber and tea. Also, it strues a third of the world's oils and fats and two-thirds of the world's tin, Bics, izluable us they are, the north of such commodities will always be Cependent on world markets, the risc and fall of which are very largely beyond the uta's control. The start and cessation of hostilities in Korea, los trample, have caused wide variation in the price of rubber and tin.) hodnochurz be a suble coonomy can be based primarily upon factors so werpselicuabic. Thile exportable raw materials, therefore, must continue for ikute to be the mainstay of much of the area's economy, a far wider discuire partem is called for before living standards an be raised is Bestel, 2.2 far greates corbasis on the production of food before national in 1 be soundly establisted. So far by industrialisation goes, it is understandable that most of these Osbould wish to follow the example of Europe and America. It is Wir la tay Suatry to have to impost products which it can learn to ·culture and religion have left their mark upon the architecture, costum and customs of those countries, Desert country, jungle country, towerin mountains and fertile plainsDIO Area in the world could be more variou in its sceacry. But despite such wide varicry, the countries of South anı South-East Asia are bound together by many common factors. B: European standards, they are comparatively undeveloped countries, livin by agriculture rather than by industry. Because of their low standards living, they are all burdened with high rates of illiteracy. To some extco' they enjoy a similar climate. They have unusually high birth-rares an support relatively large populations whose rapid increase is a very rea danger to their standard of living. SIZE OF THB PROBLEM Despite the age of their cultures, many of these countries arc thought o today as nieto countries. In this sense the most recent are Viet Nam, Cambodia and Laos, who were recognised by the United Kingdom in 1950, and th oldest'are Thailand and Nepal, who have been sovereign states for a s long time. India, Pakistan, Ceylon, Burma, Indonesia and the Philippine have all gained independence since the end of World War II. The Federatior of Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo, Sarawak and Brunci are stil administered by Britain. All the countries and territories in the area an faced with the same problem : how to improve their standard of living an how to keep their growing populations fed. For facing most of them is very real threat of famine, unless the output of food throughout the are can be considerably increased within the next few years, Terms like 'the standard of living', nutritional level' or 'birth-mate are apt to convey very little to us unless they are illustrated by actuz csamples. Here are a few. In Britain, the average national income per head of the population is something over £200 per ycar. According to the latest figures, in th United States it is around 1600. But for South and South-East Asia, the figure is roughly £20 per year. And that deplorably low figure must sent for 600 million peoplemand quarter of the people in the world! Again, as to food. In the rationed urban districts of India, the average daily dict consists of 12 ounces of cercalm mostly rice. Finally, as to clothing. Despite entremes of climate, the average Indian and Pakistani can afford no morc than nine to ten yards of cotton cloth with which to clothe himself throughout the year. Similar instances could be cited from almost any part of the arc3. By 1970 there still be about 150 million more people in South and South- East Asia to feed and clothea quarter os many people again as there are today. In other words ; in the next twenty years the population of the area will have increased by as many people as now are lising in Canada and the United States of Ameria! It is going to take a very great effort indeed to feed and clothe and house those people, no aner how tride the 47c3 over which they frappen to be scattered.

·RESOURCES OF THE ARBA The wealth of any country and therefore its standard of living depends opon is natural resources and what it can do with them. To say that the countries of South and South-East Asia bare unexploited riches in raw materials and polonial sources of power is to say very little. The people of those countries will derive no benefit from there until they have been put to sort.e productive use. Some of the resources, obviously, have been exploited for a considerable umc. It was the potential wealth of the area that attracted every trading 50926et from Vasco da Gama to the Comet. A great deal of ctfort has gone into development of the area, and a great deal of wealth continues to derive from it. Even so, is certains as a whole deplorably under developed. Industrially, except in India, it has scarcely been developed at all, apart from a few isolared centres which is one reason why its standard of living is low. Other factors are the pressure of the population, the high rate of ülitcracy and the grart Lack of technical skills. Most important and fundamental of all, however, is the primitive state of local agriculture. THE AREA IN WORLD ECONOMY The cconomy of South and South-East Asia is predominantly agricultural. Outside the larger towns, the people live almost solely by the land. Yet methods of cultiration throughout the area are liste in advance of what ubry must have been two thousand years ago. The bullock pulls the wooden flough, the paddy field is planted and hood and harvested by hand, the nice is husked by primitive means, and only the regular course of the monsoon can master for the modest result. It is hardly surprising that Dret a large part of the area desert and jungle continue to reign supreme. Nor, of course, that all the land under cultivation is given over to the production of food. The area's conmibution to world cconomy is very considerable; in return for imports of machinery and manufactured goods it already supplies the bulk of the world's jute and rubber and tea. Also, it turpletttard of the sosid's oils and fats and two-thirds of the world's tin. But, saluable as they are, the north of such commodities will always be depresident on world markets, tbc sise and fall of which are very largely beyond the area's control. The stant and cessation of bostilities in Korea, for chiple, fare used wide variation in the price of rubber and tin.) And rothing We stable economy can be based primarily upon factors 50 urrenticuable. While opportable ri* matcrius, therefore, must continue for kwame to be the mainstay of much of the area's economy, a far wider uusitt merrein is called for before Irving standards can be raised in Steeral, and a fat gratia cuplasis of the production of food before national treneris can be soundly cuablished So fa: 3 lustrission goes, it is eaderstandible that most of these unes holl wish to follow this example of Europe and America. It is fully toy a to take to isson products which it can learn to ·culture and religion have left their mark upon the architecture, costum and customs of those countries. Desert country, jungle country, towerin mountaios and fertile plains--00 area in the world could be more variou in its scenery. But despite such wide variety, the countries of South and South-East Asia are bound together by many common factors. B; European standards, they are comparatively undeveloped countries, livin by agriculture rather than by industry. Because of their low standards o living, they are all burdened with high rates of illiteracy. To some extent they enjoy a similar climate. They have unusually high birth-rates an support relatively large populations whose rapid increase is a very danger to their standard of living. SIZE OF THE PROBLEM Despite the age of their cultures, many of these countries are thought o' today as new countries. In this sense the most recent are Viet Nam, Cambodia and Laos, who were recognised by the United Kingdom in 1950, and th oldest'are Thailand and Nepal, who have been sovereign states for a very long time. India, Pakistan, Ceylon, Burma, Indonesia and the Philippines have all gained independence since the end of World War II. The Federation of Malaya, Singapore, North Bomeo, Sarawak and Brunci arc s administered by Britain. All the countries and territories in the area arc faced with the same problem : how to improve their standard of living and how to keep their growing populations fed. For facing most of them is & very real threat of faminc, unless the output of food throughout the urco can be considerably increased within the next fety years. Terms like the standard of living ',' nutritional level' or 'birth-rate arc apt to convey very little to us unless they are illustrated by actual examples. Here are a few. In Britain, the average national income per head of the population is something over £200 per year. According to the latest figures, in the United States it is around 1600. But for South and South-East Asia, the figure is roughly £20 per year. And that deplorably low- figure must serie for 600 million peoplew] quarter of the people in the world! Again, as to food. In the rationed urban districts of India, the average daily dice consists of 12 ounces of cereal-mostly rice. Finally, as to clothing. Despite extremes of climate, the average Indian and Pakistani can afford no more than nine to en yards of cotton cloth with which to clothe himself throughout the year. Similar instances could be cited from almost any part of the arcu. By 1970 there will be about 150 million more people in South and South- East Asia to feed and clothe quarter as many people again as there are today. In other words : in the next twenty years the population of the arca will have increased by as many people as now are living in Canada and the Ur ed States of America! It is going to take a scry great effor indeed to feed and clothc and house those people, no matter hoss side the area over which they happen to be scattered. 6 ·RESOURCES OF THE AREA The wealth of any country and therefore its standard of living depends oroa its natural resources and that it can do with them. To say that the bungics of South and South-East Asia Art unexploited riches in raw materials and porcosial sources of power is to say very lines. The people of those countries will derive po benefit from them undil they base beca put to some productive usc. Some of the resources, obviously, have been esploited for a considerable unc. I was the potential wealth of the area that attracted every trading voyages from Vasco da Gam3 to the Comet. A great deal of effort has fode bolo development of the area, and a great deal of Health continues to derive from it. Eren so, it remains as a wbole deplorably worker derelaped. Industrialiy, except in India, it bas scarcely been developed at all, apart from a fex isolated ontres-shich is one reason why is standard of Living is low. Other factors are the pressure of the population, the high rate of illisentcy and the grave lack of rechnical skills. Most important and Fundamental of all, however, is the primitive state of local agriculturc. THE AREA IN WORLD ECONOMY The coopomy of South and South-East Asia is predominantly agricultural. Oucside the larger towns, the people live almost solely by the land. Yet meks of culorayon throughout the area are little in adsanct of what they must have been to thousand years ago. The bullock pulls the wooden plough, the paddy field is planted and doed and harvested by band, the nice is buided by primitive means, and only the regular course of the monsoon can mature for the modest result. It is hardly surprising thar Over a largt part of the area desert and jungle Coprinue to reign supremc. Noc, of course, that all the land under cultivation is given over to the Sroduction of food. The area's contribution to world cpoomy is very siderable; m rerum for imports of machinery and coapufactured goods tt trends turtles the balk of the world's jute and rubber and rna. Also, it supplies * Wurd of the world's oils sad fats and two-thirds of the world's din. Oce, talable us they are, the word of such commodities #21 always be dependent og korld masters, the nse and fall of which are very largely heyond the area's control. (The 12277 and cessation of hostilities in Korea, for surple, Aare caused wide variation in the price of rubber and tin.) And met de z table condomy can be based primarily upon factors so langelictable while exportable 17* materials, therefors, must continue for u koristite to be the mainstay of much of the area's economy, a fur wider FASTE em as llat for before linag standards can be raised in fort, da far gyerket top basis on the production of food before aatissa jes aan be sounds established, So far as dimension goes, it is Borderstandable that most of these Count thould ask to fator the topic of Europe and Amoria. It is wrdd let us to have to zapons products which it est learn to ·manufacture more cheaply for itself. But before any widespread program.me of industrial development can be put in hand, a great deal of planning and effort and redeployment and capital outlay is necessary. Building a factory is not enough in itself; cheap sources of power have first to be ensured and adequate communications established. Skills and techniques have to be mastered and a new industrial manpower brought into being. Population has to be moved, houses have to be built and the general amenities of urban living provided for new communitiesmall without disruption of vital food production. We are sometimes apt to forget that the Industrial Revolution was a revolution indeed and that it has taken the Western world some no hundred years to carry it even as far as its present stage. AGRICULTURE COMES FIRST In any case, it should be emphasised again that industrialisation is only a small part of the needs of South and South-East Asia. However far it may be developed, industry will always remain a secondary factor compared with agriculture, and the vast majority of the crops grown will have to remain the food by which the area must live. It is said that an acre of land can keep one man in food, but every extra mouth to feed demands an extra acre. And in South and South-East Asia, there will soon be many more mouths to feed at the present rate of increase 150 million of them within the next twenty ycars! There is a grave danger, therefore, that before much longer the peoples of India, Pakistan, Ceylon and Indonesia may have outgrown their ability to feed themselves. They will certainly do so unless present output can be increased and unless vast new tracts of land can be put into effective cultivation. But until equally large new schemes of irrigation, clearance and reclamation have been undertaken, and modern farming methods introduced, there is little chance of this happening. This, of course, is no new problem. For example, by 1947 already 72 million acres of land were being irrigated in the whole of the Indian sub-continent. But if their people are not to go hungry the countries of South and South-East Asia must devote themselves to a far more comprehensive plan of large-scale agricultural development And if their standards of living are to be raised, they must begin to develop themselves industrially as well. THE PRODLEM TACKLED Thus, then, is the challenge with which a quarter of the people in the world arc faced today. Plan and desclop, of live in poverty and know the certainty of eventual starvation. Nor can there be very much doubt as to the consequences for the Western world no less than for Asia--if that challenge WCTC to be disregarded. Luckily the challenge has already been taken up. A new spirit is at work in South and South-East Asia; new sechniques are being tried out, 8

·173
3
tatet The Norton Rouge
part of Ceylon's Labupana
50, knie Colby, fifty miles
artis in Istween
(ntra R
Gal tha
Tas TC2L
cm, no hath
Irrarna et, +1
's teens to non
w the Lumalate
auf vorn an

·manufacture more cheaply for itself. But before any widespread programms of industrial development can be put in hand, a great deal of planning and cffort and redeployment and capital outlay is necessary. Building a factory is not enough in itself; cheap sources of power have first to be casured and adequate communications established. Skills and techniques have to be mastered and a new industrial manpower brought into being. Populatica has to be moved, houses have to be built and the general amenities of urban living provided for new communities-mall without disruption of vital food production. We are sometimes apt to forget that the Industrial Revolution was a revolution indeed and that it has taken the Western world some two hundred years to carry it even as far as its present stage. AGRICULTURE COMES FIRST In any case, it should be emphasised again that industrialisation is only a small part of the needs of South and South-East Asia. However far it may be developed, industry will always remain a secondary factor compared with agriculture, and the vast majority of the crops grown will have to remain the food by which the area must live. It is said that an acre of land can keep one man in food, but every extra mouth to feed demands an extra acre. And in South and South-East Asia, there will soon be many more mouths to feed at the present rate of increase 150 million of them within the next twenty years! There is a grave danger, therefore, that before much longer the peoples of India, Pakismn, Ceylon and Indonesia may have outgrown their ability to feed themselves. They will certainly do so unless present output can be incrcased and unless yast new tracts of land can be put into effective cultivation. But unul cqually large new schemes of irrigation, clearance and reclamation have been undertaken, and modern farming methols introduced, there is little chance of this happening. This, of course, is no new problem. For example, by 1947 alsсady 72 million acres of lan were being irrigated in the whole of the Indian sub-continent. But if their people are not to go hungry the countries of South and South-East Asia must devote themselves to a far more comprehensive plan of large-scale agricultural development. And if their standards of living are to be raised, they must begin to develop themselves industrially as well. TIIB PROBLEM TACKLED This, then, is the challenge with which a quarter of the people in the world arc faced today. Plan and develop, of live in poverty and know the certainty of eventual starvation. Nor can there be very much doubt as to the consequences for the Western world no less than for Asia-if that challenge there to be disregarded. Luckily the challenge has alrcady been taken up. A new spirit is at kork in South and South-East Asia; new techniques are being tried out, 8

·ower from water The Norton Bridge
Dam, part of Ceylon's Laksapana
-cheme, serves Colombo, fifty miles
way, and arcas in between.
thota Preece Cardetran Radet
Gal Oya. This great
dam, pronding both
irrigation and power, 15
already helping to open
up the underpopulated
areas of Eastern Ceylon.

·Bringing the desert to life in Pakistan Excavating for the Kurram Garrli mula-purpose pmoja Wheat from the I'akistanis, uning update mcchanned equir ment, frenare nart the Thal's tuo millon of desert Irigation ACTCT ·ACH ways of life are being adopted. Already nearly every country in the 'area has embarked upon its own development programme. Outside aid in loans, gifts and technical assistance bas been forthcoming, and the correlation of deeds and means, of determined self-help and effective co-operation has become known to the world as The Colombo Plan. 2. What the Plan is doing The Colombo Plan bas now entered upon its third year, and all the countries in the area (with the exception of Thailand, Afghanistan and the Philippines) are now full members. The United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States are also represented on the Consultative Committee of the Colambo Plan which meets about once a year to review progress and problems of development in the area, the last meeting having taken place at New Delhi in October, 1953. The object of the Plan is to give encouragement and support to countries of South and South-East Asia in their efforts to raise the living standards of their poople. Each country concerned has drawn up its own development programme and each is solely responsible for putting that programme into effect. By far the greater part of the cost of each programme, furthermore, is met by the country itself, so that while outside financial aid is considerable, as is shown later on, it represents only a fraction of what the Colombo Plan countries are doing for themselves. But the plan is far more than a mere device for providing additional capital: under its scheme for Technical Co-operation, it is providing technical assistance which is often enough harder to come by than finance. FOOD MEANS RICE In all non-Asian parts of the Commonwealth, we think of farming country as so many vistas of rolling landscape and rustling wheat. But the climate of South and South-East Asia dictates a very different type of farming. Only in a few scattered areas like the Punjab is wheat cultivation at all usual. For the most part, the problem of food production under the Colombo Plan resolves itself into the problem of growing rice. Rice-or paddy IS & Crop that is best gwnn in soil that is Literally warcrlogged. A countryside gives over to the paddy-field is terraced and flooded 9 ·until it resembles a jigsaw puzzle of shallow ponds. The soil of each paddy-field is ploughed under water, by oxen and men splashing about in Wazer up to their knees. The paddy gross up through the water like shoots of an aquatic plant reaching up into the sunlight. Only where water is plentiful can paddy be grosti at all. The annual rainfall over most of South and South-East Asia is considerably higher than it is in Britain or any other sheat-producing country, But for more than balf of the area it is not an even rainfall; it is the rainfall of the monsoon. For some three months of the year rain may fall continuously and torrentially; for the rest of the year the feather may be dry and hot and the land as parched as a desert. The problem of maintining and increasing food production in such a climate calls for a method of conserting rainfall, in such a way that water can be made available for farming during long periods of the dry season. Water conservation calls for the building of damsmithich will also assist in food control during the monsoon itself. And the distribution of conserved water calls for a nehrork of irrigation canals. The importance of irrigation and flood control over most of South and South-East Asia canaot be over-stressed, for without it there can be little agriculture. Onc-fifth of the area under cultivation today in India is under continuous irrigation--tomlling some fifry million acres. Furthermore, that irrigated area will have to be doubled during the next fifteen or (kenty years if food production in the country is to keep pace with increasing needs. It is not surprising, therefore, that the largest and most ambitious items in nearly every country's development programme under the Colombo Plan are major engineering projects. An irrigacion network may run into thousands of miles of canal. A dam can serve other purposes besides the conservation of water : it is also a potential source of hydro-clectric power. And with that power made availabls, neir industrial areas can soon be opened up. That is why most of the large irrigauon schemes under the Colombo Plan are known as mulu-purpose schemes. GAL OYA A typical multi-purpose scheme is the one nearing completion on the Gal Oya in the Eastem Province of Ceylon. This area, in the so-called 'dry zonc' of the island, has not been cſſecurely cultivated for many hundreds of years. Since the breakdown of the immense irrigation schemes constructed by the early Kings of Ceylon, tro-thirds of the island has been overgrown by jungle. Two-thirds of Ceylon's present population is accordingly crossded into the so-called 'wet zone the restom coastal belt which enjoys to monsoon seasons to the year. As a first step towards the opening of the under-populated castem areas, a scheme has been draum up for conserving the head-waters of the Gal Oya River. A huge canhen dam has been thrown across the river. Behind its green) immensity, which sises 156 feet above the rirer bed, a large artificial lake is forming in which 10 ·the last fere drowning trees rise from a shrinking scatter of submerging islands. Below the dam, bulldozers dragging anchot-chains have already cleared thousands of acres of jungle. The bear and leopard have long since depared, scared of by the shine and clatter of the machines. Miles of irrigation channelling have been dug, and the land has been ploughod by tractors and is already being put into cultivation. Apart from the fem villagers whose homes bart been lost below the waters of the lake, this new land is being setzled by colonisas, mored into the area from the overcrowded westera side of the island. New homes have been built for them, and they have been given their seed, farming implemeets and draught oxen for ploughing. The ricaring and irrigation goes 0g, and within the decade a quarter of a million people should have been sealed. Country which was recently so much virgin jungle is being transformed into rich new farmlands; food far beyond the needs of the Gal Oya area is being made available to Ceylon as a wboie. Vader the shadow of the date, a power station bas been built which will have an ultimate output of 10,000 kilowatts. Apart from the workshops erected at Amparai for servicing the equipmmt sogaged on the jungle clearance, milis and factories are planned for the distritt and a whole now community is coming into being. Technical assistance for this developmeat is being arranged under the Colombo Plan, and United Kingdom, Indian and Australian rechnicians are already working side by side with the Ceylonese. The dam itself was built by a firm of American contractors, Nevertheless, the planning and operation of the scheme remain the work of Ceylon herself. Some of the greatest irrigation schemes in the world were planned and built by the Ceylonese over a thousand years ago. Under the Colombo Plan, many of them are being restored and put back into service once again. DAMODAR VALLEY India, too, is engaged on many similar large-scale multi-purpose schemes. Perhaps the most spectacular is the GAC cotred on the Damodar Valley in Fest Bengal and Bihar. This scheme will ultimately entail the building of wght large dams and ten hydro-electric stations, three suxiliary power stations, a poker transmission gnd, aa irrigation barrage and a widespread system of canais, lo this case food astrol is a primary object, as the valley has suffered disastzously from seasonal flooding in the past. The schetne will also provide irrigation for some million acres of farmland, as well as supplying some 270,000 kilowatts of poster for the Bearby coalfields and Industrial Delt. Already, odle of the dams and a thermal power station st Bokaro bave beta put into commission and two more dames are rapidly acaring completion. The dare already builtTilaiya-was built largely by human hands; so is Konar, in jungle country. Millions of cubic feet of concrete weze cated and laid by an army of workers who swarned up and down be inwering structures like so many industrious ants. Turbans and chats, gaily coloured sarees and veils, jingling silver necklaces, anklets ·until it resembles a jigsaw puzzle of shallow ponds. The soil of cach paddy-field is ploughed under water, by oxen and men splashing about in water up to their knees. The paddy gross up through the water like shoots of an aquatic plant reaching up into the sunlight. Only where water is plentiful can paddy be grown at all. The annual rainfall over most of South and South-East Asia is considerably higher than it is in Britain or any other wheat-producing country. But for more than half of the area it is not an even rainfall; it is the rainfall of the monsoon. For some three months of the year rain may fall continuously and torrentially; for the rest of the year the weather may be dry and hot and the land as parched as a desert. The problem of maintaining and increasing food production in such a climate alls for a method of conserting rainfall, in such a way that water can be made available for farming during long periods of the dry season. Water conservation calls for the building of dams which will also assist in flood control during the monsoon itself. And the distribution of conserved water calls for a network of irrigation canals. The importance of irrigation and flood control over most of South and South-East Asia cannot be over-stressed, for without it there can be little agriculture. One-fifth of the area under cultivation today in India is under continuous irrigation--totalling some fifry million actes. Furthermore, thar irrigated area will have to be doubled during the next fifteen or tirenty years if food production in the country is to keep pace with increasing needs. It is not surprising, thercfore, that the largest and most ambitious items in nearly every country's development programme under the Colombo Plan sre major engineering projects. An irrigation acrwork may sun into thousands of miles of canal. A dam aan serve other purposes besides the conscrvation of water : it is also a porontal source of hydro-electric power. And with that power made available, not industrial areas can soon be opened up. That is why most of the large irrigation schemes under the Colombo Mian arc known as multi-purpose schemes. GAL OYA A typical multi-purpose scheme is the one ncaring completion on the Gal Oya in the Eastern Province of Ceylon. This arca, in the so-called dry zone' of the island, has nor been cſſecurely cultivated for many hundreds of years. Since the breakdown of the immense irrigation schemes constructed by the carly Kings of Ceylon, ko-thirds of the island has been oycrgrown by jungle. Two-thirds of Ceylon's present population » accordingly crowded into the so-called 'xer zone the western coastal belt which enjoys tho monsoon ScaSoos to the year. As a first step towards the opening of the under.populared caster arcas, a scheme has been drawn up for conserving the bead-waters of the Gal Oya River. A huge carthen damn has been thrown eczoss the river. Behind its green immensity, which rises 156 feet above the river bed, a large artificial lake is forming in which 10 ·Part of the great Damodar Valley scheme, the Konar dam, built largely by human hands and now nearing completion 1 Jam s also part of this scheme which comflood control and hydro-electric PORCE.

·and nose-jewels--there can hardly have been a more colourful labour corps anywhere on carth. To watch it at work-men and women alike is to realise that though they may have been larger, this was how the Pyramids thenselves must have been built. But on this occasion equal cffort was bent upon far more productive ends, Similar effort in many other parts of India is building the most ambitious scries of irrigation and hydro-electric schemes in the storld today. The Hirakud, Kakrapar, Ghataprabha, Gangapur, Mayurakshi, Tungabhadra, Machikund and Lower Bhavani projects are already taking shape; the Kosi, Kogna, Chambal and Rihand projects are shortly to be started. All these schemes are aimed at increasing the food and power potential of the country, and all are being operated under the Indian Fire-Year Pan. The United States has agreed to contribute over £3.57 million to River Development Schemes in India. Canadian ad under the Colombo Plan is also helping at Alayurakshi, and Australian and is helping at Tungabhadra; otherwise the whole cost of the schemes is being met by India herself. Her shortage of modern enginccring equipment is being compensated for by an almost limitless supply of Indian manpower. Helping to plan the future development of India's hydro-electric resources has been the task of a United Kingdom Technical Assistance expert, Mr. Allan Monkhouse. As he enjoys an international reputation, his opinion may be worth quoting. 'I am most impressed with what I have seen of Indian cngineering so far, he said in a recent broadcast,' especially on the civil engineering side. Everywhere I find kechness and cnthusiasm and a co-operative spirit. There is keen appreciation of the assistance which has been given under the Colombo Plan and other technical assistance plans.' THE TIAL The Damodar and Gal Oya Valley des clopment schemes are both concerned with increasing ricc production in jungle or semi-jungle arcas. But thc Thal Devclopment Project in West Pakistan is concemed with the irrigation and operung-up of desent country for the cultivation of shcat. It is one of the largest items in Pakistan's Sưx-Year Plan; it is also the largest project of its type anywhere in the world today. It involves the irrigation of over two million acres, the sculing of half a million colonists and thic building up for them or a full community lifc. New louns are already springing up in the desert, as sell as a host of new villages; new industries arc beginning to flourish and some seson hundred miles of new road have been planned to link the whole together. Already two hundred and fifty villages are established and green shoots of what are thrusting up from the sandy soil where presiously there was only a wilderness of sarkander FISS and boi and kikarmendesert vegetation that promised little to farmers. Bringing a desert to liſc, indeed, calls for more than the mere provision of irrigation. Canals have not mcrcly to be dug; they have also to be proiected against the effects of heavy silting, Windbreaks have to be planted against 12 ·the ever prevalent dust- and saad-storas, Sand itself has to be turned into soil, new types of vegeradon introduced, new methods of farming discovered and encouraged. AU this is part and parcel of the Thal Derelopment Project. Experimental agricultural stations are studying ways and means of making the desert beat fruit. Experiments with the inuoduction and breeding of livestock are being conducted at the Commonwealth Livestock Farm, joiatly set up by Australia, New Zealand and Canada, wbich represents one side of the aid which the Colombo Plan is contributing. OTHER POWER SCHEMES In addition to the Thal and other multi-purpose projects such as the Lower Sind Barrage, Pakistan also has her own hydro-electric development plans. Hydso-electric stations at Alalakand, Rasul, Dargai, Mianwali and Warsak are all being enlarged or opened up to supply the increasing needs of local industry, and six new thermal plants are planned. Ceylon is well on the way to completion of a similar bydro-electric scheme at Laksapana. United Kingdom technicians bave assisted with the preparation of plans and specifications for this as well. RURAL DEVELOPMENT Alulti-purpose schemes such as Gal Oya, Damodar or the Thal arc impressive by reason of their magnitude and the comprehensive nature of their aims. But a great deal can also be done by schemes that appear at first sight to be infinitely more modest. The opening up of now land to food production is only a part of the area's needs; an even more vital part is the raising of yields in land already under cultivation. The farming methods of South and South-East Asia are often inefficient and wasteful. The yields per acre are deplorably low and could well be doubled by the introduction of better farming practice. In Japan, for instance, rice yields are three or four times as much as they are in India--for a far smaller quantity of seed. Experiments with the so-called Japanese method of rice cultivation are now being carried on in Bombay and Indian farmers are being urged adopt it. At Maha Illupallama, in Ceylon, the Nese Zealand Government is underwriting an experimental station devoted to the study of dry-farming methods farming in the so-called 'dry zone'. Experiments at this station have proved that it is possible to double the yield of rice by adopting proper methods of transplanting-which has always been standard practice in Japan. But it is one thing to prave a fact by experiment, and quite anorber to get the results of successful experissene generally adopted over a wide area. A large part of the poverty and suffering in South and South-East Asia derives from the conservatism and superstition of the peasant, so his education and caughtenrest suust always be among the first objectives of any fundametal development programme. Rural Development, in fact, is one of the most important items is every development plan throughout the arca. Rural development officers are already at work in India, Pakistan, Ceylon 13 ·Rice from jungle and swamp Part of a 27-mile stretch in Malaya before the suramp was drained and the jungle growth bumi. N The same area ruas. Reclaimed and impun, pesant hanpito feed the 10,00 Malaya... ho cultiva!er: 2nd many others ·the cyer prevalent dust- and sand-storms. Sand itself has to be turned into soil, new types of vegetadoa introduced, new methods of farming discovered and encouraged. All this is part and parcel of the Thal Development Project. Experimental agricultural stations are studying says and means of making the desert bear fruit. Experibçats with the introduction and breeding of livestock are being conducted at the Commonwealth Livestock Farm, jointly set up by Australia, New Zealand and Canada, which represents onc sidt of the aid which the Colombo Plan is contributing, OTHER POWER SCHEMES In addition to the Thal and other multi-purpose projects such as the Lower Sind Barrage, Pakistan also has her own hydro-electric development plaas. Hydro-electric stations at Alalakand, Rasul, Dargai, Mianwali and Warsak are all being esfarged or opened up to supply the increasing needs of local industry, and six new thermal plants are planned. Ceylon is well on the way to completion of a similar hydro-electric scheme at Laksapana. United Kingdom technicians have assisted with the preparation of plans and specifications for this as well. RURAL DEVELOPMENT Multi-puspose schemes such as Gal Oya, Damodar or the Thal arc imopressive by reason of their magnitude and the comprehensive nature of their aims. But a great deal can also be done by schemes that appear at first sight to be infinitely more modest. The opening up of new land to food production ss only a part of the area's deeds; an even morc vital part is the raising of yeids sa land already under cultivation. The farming methods of South and South-East Asia are often inefficient and wasteful. The yields per acte are deplorably lose and could well be doubled by the introduction of better farming practice. In Japan, for instance, rice yields are three of four bmes as much as they are in India for a far smaller quantity of seed. Experiments with the so-called Japanese method of rice cultivation are now belog carried on in Bombay and Indian farklers are being urged to adopt it. At Maha Illupallana, in Ceyloa, the New Zealand Government is underwriting an experimental station devoted to the study of dry-farming methods --farming in the so-called 'dry zone'. Esperiments at this station have proved that it is possible to double the yield of nice by adopting proper methods of transplanting-which has always been standard practice in Japan. But it is one thing to prove a fact by experiment, and quite another to get the results of successful experiment generally adopted over a wide area. A large part of the poverty and suffering in South and South-East Asia derives from the conservatism and superstition of the peasant, so his education and calghtenment must always be among the first objectives of any fundamensal development programme. Rural Development, in fact, is one of the most important items in every development plan throughout the area. Rural development officers are already at work in India, Pakistan, Ceylon ·3 Rice from jungle and swamp Part of a 27-mile stretch in Malaya before the swamp was drained and the jungle growth burni. The same arca today. Reclaimed and irrigated, it yields a rich harvest to feed the 80,000 Malayans who cultivate it and many others.

·work has been made clear to them. And it is by just such communal citort that the largest, most widespread benefit to Ceylonese agriculture can be effected. I will not be the fault of the Rural Development officers if it fails to be COMMUNITY PROJECTS In India, Community Development is the method and Rural Extension the ageocy by which rural economy is being improved. A new oncept is embodied in the organisation of Community Projects, which are seeking to combine rural and urban egonomy in such a way as to link the villages with the smallet towns and bind wkole districts into a mutual interdependence. Each project area in the schemt embraces some 300 villages with a total area up to about 500 square miles, a cultivated area of anything up to 150,000 acres and a population of some 200,000 people. Financial aid for the schemat, as well as technical assistance, is coming from the United States Government and the Ford Foundation, and already some very cacouragiog results have been obtained. Decentralisation of light industry and the promotion of somcalled cottage industries are going ahead side by side with it. Obviously, in a monsoon country, farming can only employ a fraction of the villager's working year; there are many months in which the rural population tends to remain idle. Cottage industries provide the villager with a means of employing his leisure profitably. Ofira esough he can do io his owns tome work which be is unwiling to seek maay miles away in a factory. Where the factory cao farm out its work over the nearby country side, it can frequently reduce its operating costs. And there are many light industries that can adapt themselves to such a scheme. Training centres are beiog set up in many districts and trades and bandícsafts are being taught; ofiens enough the factories ate undertaking the training themselves. In this way the life of the smaller ton2 and the surrounding villages are being closely liked. On the social side, Community Centres are at last bringing to the rural population some of the amenities of viban living, Most important of all, the rural population is being taught and we couraged to do a number of things for itself, And it is remarkable tow piuch a backward village can be encouraged to do for nself, given the means and the leadership. I myself have watched the transformation beiog brought about in scores of them by the example and determination of one or two men. Schools have been built, roads constructed, ditches dug and sanitation installed training centres have been set up, giving instruction to all the district in the forging of iron ploughshares, the making of pottery and tiles, carpentry, weaving and all manner of other work. It is only by such means that the face of a country like India can tyen be transformed, and it is in the transformatiou already going on that the inspiration and leadership of Gandhi can still be secu. A sisulat programme of village aid is being developed in Pakistan. As a beginning, it is proposed to select some se hundred villages for development 15 ·and Malaya--and always the value and importance of their efforts is only too obvious. Not merely are they concerned with the study and spread of better farming methods; their work is equally aimed at the general improvement of rural living conditions. The effect of their work upon the living standards and general economy of the area will be incalculable. The village, after all, is the mainstay of South and South-East Asian economy. There are some 800,000 villages in India alone. No scheme of economic or social development can begin to make its effect felt in the area until it has been reflected in village life. In Malaya, the work devolves largely upon the officers of R.I.D.A.-the Rural and Industrial Development Authority—whose business it is to encourage village initiative by the provision of loans and equipment, the labour for any project undertaken being supplied by the villagers themselves. There is a rich field for R.I.D.A.'s work in the 500 new villages that had been created by 1952, in which over 400,000 people, mostly Chinese, had been resettled. There, and in the Malay kampongs, R.I.D.A. also assists in the building of mills and factories for the handling, processing and marketing of local products by smallholders' co-operatives. But the bulk of its work is on the modest scale of well-sinking and bridge-building, and the making of roads and pathways which enable the scattered jungle villages to raise their products more cheaply and sell them more advantageously. Much of the pioneering has had to be done in territory until recently open to the Communist terrorists. In Ceylon, Rural Development Societies are being established in crety village. They are concerned equally with economic development through the adoption of better farming methods and with improvement in the general health and social amenities of the villagers. Rural Development Officers work in collaboration with the village headmen, furnishing tools and implements and offering help and advice in matters that range from the provision of crude sanitation to cattle-breeding and the use of the iron plough. In the newly settled areas of Gal Oya, village officers are doing a very great deal to foster a new community spirit among people whose lives have suddenly become strange and exciting. The way in which they have already won the confidence of even the most suspicious hill-folk bodes well for the entire scheme. It has been mentioned that the first irrigation works in the island were built by the old Kings of Ceylon; and the enormous earthworks they built, the hundreds of miles of canal they dug are still a monument to their genius, ruined though many of them are. The more spectacular of their works-enormous tanks like the so-called Sea of Parakrama-are rapidly being repaired and put back into service. But the smaller tanks, of which there are many thousands and on which a prosperous village economy was once entirely founded, are still mostly lost amid the jungle. Rediscovery and repair of these tanks is another work in which Rural Development aan help. For the tanks were originally built by villagers and it remains in the villagers' power to put them back into commission once the need for the 14 ·work has been made clear to them. And it is by just such communal effort that the largest, most widespread benefit to Ceylonese agriculture can be affected. It will not be the fault of the Rural Development officers if it fails to be, COMMUNITY PROJECTS In India, Community Development is the method and Rural Extension the agency by which rural economy is being improved. A new concept is embodied in the organisation of Community Projects, which are seeking to combuse rural and urban economy in such a way as to link the villages with the smaller towns and bind wbole districts into a mutual interdependence. Each project area in the scheme embraces some 300 villages with a total area up to about 500 square miles, a cultivared arca of anything up to 150,000 acres and a populatios of some 200,000 people. Financial aid for the scheme, 8s well as technical assistance, is coming from the United States Government and the Ford Foundation, and already some very encouraging results have been obtained. Decentralisation of light industry and the promotion of so-called cortage industries are going ahead side by side with it. Obviously, in a monsoon country, farming can only employ a fraction of the villager's working year, there are many months in which the rural populadoa tends to remain idle. Cottage industries provide the villager with a means of craplaying his leisure profitably. Often clough he can do ta tus onn home work which he is unwilling to seek many miles away in a factory. Where the factory can farm our its kort over the nearby country side, at can frequently reduce its operating costs. And there are many light industries that can adapt themselves to such a scheme. Training centres are being set up in many districts and trades and handicrafts are being zaught; often caough the factories are undertaking the training themselves. In ius way the life of the smaller town and the surrounding villages are being closely unked On the social side, Community Centres are at last bringing to the rural population some of the amenities of urban living. Most important of all, the rural population is being taught and encouraged to do a pumber of things for itself. And it is remarkable bow much a backward village can be encouraged to do for itself, given the means and the leadership. I myself have watched the transformation being brought about in scores of them by the example and derestinanon of one of two men, Schools have been built, roads COostructed, ditches dug and sanitation installed ; training centres have been set up, giving instruction to all the district in the forging of iron ploughshares, the making of pottery and tiles, senary, weaving and all manner of other work. It is only by such means that the face of a country like India we ever be transformed; sod it is in the transformation already going on that the waspiration and leadership of Gandhi 20 still be senz. A simulat programme of village aid is being developed in Pakistan. As a beginning, it is proposed to select some six hundred villages for development ·into model communities. Field workers are being trained for the work and they in turn are passing on their training to others in community centres. Instruction includes not only improvement in farming methods, but also the whole process of successful community living. Idle maapower is being encouraged to devote itself to public works, materials and equipment being supplied by the central authority. Finally, the villagers are being advised on the organisation of their own co-operatives for the handling of their own agricultural products. Financial and technical aid for this scheme too, has been supplied by the United States Government and by the Ford Foundation, which has financed a tour of twenty-eight Pakistani officials to study rural aid and development in India and Japan. PAKISTAN'S PROBLEMIS The needs of Pakistan, of course, are particular and largely derive from the inevitable anomalies of partition. To begin with there was the problem of rehabilitating some seven million refugeesmma problem which India also has had to contend with. But partition at the same time deprived Pakistan of large numbers of doctors, lawyers, engineers and business men. She was also left desperately short of trained technicians, and virtually without effective means of training new ones. Many technical experts bave been made available to the country under the Colombo Plan, and training for Pakistani students as for students from all the Colombo Plan countries. is being provided overseas, mainly in Australia and the United Kingdom. But proper training facilities are urgently needed within the country itself. The Technical High Schools which Pakistan is establishing are already begirining to provide it, In view of their importance to Pakistan's future, the United Kingdom has agreed to supply the entire equipment for cight of them and to supplement the equipment already in use at the one at Karachi at a cost of £136,000. A further problem which faced Pakistan was that almost all the industrial arcas for which Pakistan supplied the raw materials were in India. With 80 per cent of the world's production of raw jute, for instance, partition found Pakistan without a single jute mill. With an annual production of 200,000 tons of cotton, it had few textilc mills. There were no tanneries in the country, no woollen mills and no paper mills to mention only a few of the most obvious deficicacies. Onc of Pakistan's first needs, therefore, was to embark upon a certain degree of industrialisation. Already, in the first six years of its existence as an independent country, a very great deal has been achueved. New cotton mills have sprung up outside Karachi and a whole new industrial district around them, operated as a trading estate. By 1957 it is estimated that domestic production will be able to take care of the country's entire requirements in coarse and medium cloth. And a great deal of the machinery installed has come from the United Kingdom. To ensure a flow of skilled labour for these projects a textile training centre is being established at Lyallpur, with equipment costing £140,000 supplied by the United Kingdom

·No text on this page.

·No text on this page.

·under the Technical Co-operation Scheme. Enormous jute mills are being built and are already partly in operation at Narayanganj, near Daoch. Their 3,000 looms, supplied by United Kingdom firms, will represent onc half of the total provided for by the Sux-Year Plan. Nesy woollen mills, sugar mills, two cement factories supplied by Canada and Australia under the Colombo Plan and a fertiliser factory fnanced by the U.S. Technical Cooperation Administradon are also on their way. In East Pakistan a large nett paper mill is nearing completion at Chandragon3. Contractors from half-a-dozens countries bave been cagaged upon the work, which represents another major stem in the Six-Year Plan. Designed to turn out 100 tons of paper a day, it is expected that this one very large mil, 75 per cent of whose machinery has come from the United Kingdom, will supply the needs of East Pakistan for writing and printing paper. Chandragona is interesting for the problems which its construction has presented. The building and operation of a large paper mill in the heart of jungle country (the site was dictated by the location of the bamboo forests which supply its raw material) calls for more than steel and concrete. A will requires its focal labour, and 18 jungle countries that Labour must be attracted to the site. A whole new town and essential amenities must be provided for it. Successful operation of the mill, in fact, calls for a whole new exercise in community planning. Without such plansing the labour would soon drift back from the jungle to the cities. COMMUNICATIONS Chandragora provides a typical example of the problems which lic behind any desclopment io South and South-East Asia, for the problemas derive all too frequently from the very nature of the terrain. And common to Acusly every development project is the area is the problem of inadequa.c communications. In a country like East Pakistan, which is itself a maze of navigable waterways, other means of transport than rail or road may exist. This is a very fortunate thing, for there is no stone is the whole of that king of Pakistan suitable for modern road-metalling! But even water transport presents its own particular problems, and there is no easy way of solving them. Furthermore, East Pakistan at one time possessed only the one small postChittagong which is quite inadequate for handling the country's export traffic. Chittagong's porr facílies are being greatly mended and a Batish firm is engaged in building a number of zet jetties. At the sanse sme a new port in the neighbourhood of Chalna is under construcuon. Already the anchorage established there has given considerable relief to Chittagong in the handling of jute exports, much of the jute beweg grown in the Chaina ares. But linking that anchorage with other parts of the country is itself a major problem in communications, Pont development scheraes have also bad to be put in hand in Ceylon, ruch hopes to meet tcr Deeds by 2027sasing the capacity of Colombo and ·PRODUCTS OF SOUTH A KASHMIR PAKISTAN KARACHI DELHO NEPAL INDIA BOMBAY PAKISTA Arabian CALCUTTA O CHITTAGG PN Sea Bay of Benga MADRAS MILES 200 40 600 Bog CEYLON 1000 COLONBO lon Indian HAIN EXPORTS OF THE AREA Almost all the world's JUTE (mainly from Pakistan) Almost all the world's RUBBER (malnly from Ceylon, Malaya, Indonesia) More than of the world's TEA (mainly from Ceylon, India, Pakistan, Indonesia) i of the world's TIN (mainly from Malaya) f of the world's OILS & FATS (mainly from India, Malaya, Indonesia) 30* ·8109 ISOUTH-EAST ASIA RICE KEY I RUBBER COAL JUTE 30 QILSEEDS TIN MICA OIL JUGAR PEPPER COCONUTS DE MAIZE COTTON TEA TOBACCO TIMBER TUNGSTEN MANGANESE BRON ORE 200 BURMA LAOS ORANGOON INDO.CHINA CAMBODIA เทศษม) SSIG01 NORTH BORNEO BRUNEI FEDERATION OF MALAYA SARAWAK TRA 0 SINGAPORE BOANEO CELEBES R2 INDONESIA SAYA to 310* We ·installing port facilities elsewhere, India, on the other hand, has had to commit herself to a far larger programme, which includes the building of a new major port at Kandla and five subsidiary ports in Cutch. INDUSTRY AND INDIA India, of course, is by far the most industralised country in South or South-East Asia. In the Damodar Valley area she has an iadustrial belt which has oftea been likened to the Ruhr. The countryside is scared with enormous open-cast coal mines; the sky is grey with the smoke of tall chimneys and brilliant by night with the glare of blast furnaces. Considerable demands are already being made on the Indian iron and steel industry which is being stepped up to keep pace with the requirements of the Five-Year Plan. At present the industry can meer no more than half those demands, and development in almost every other field is an additional tax upon it. The Five-Year Plan aims at increasing finished steel production by 350,000 cons per year and pig iron production by 380,000 tons, and a fifteen-year loan to the industry of £11.25 million has been made by the International Bank. The building of additional plant is also envisaged. Also located in the Damodar Valley is the great new Sindri Fertiliser Factory the largest plant of its kind in Asia. The factory was party built and equipped by forty British firms, eighty-four contractors being concemed with installation of the complicated plant. Its storage silo, svith a capacity of about 100,000 tons, is the largest agricultural silo in the world. The plant itself occupies an area of a square mile, another nine square miles being devoted to housing the workers and technicians. Annual production capacity, which should soon be attained, is some 360,000 tons of fertiliscoa thousand tons a day. estimated to represent scarly a million tons of extra food per year, to say nothing of an annual saving in foreign exchange of some £10 million. As a major industrial project alone, Sindri would be remarkable. But potentially it is far more than that. Like nearby Chittaranjan, where India is now bulding her own locomotives, Sindri is also a new township--and one which is by way of becoming a model for urban development throughout the country. All that a modern town can offer is nou enjoyed by the people of both industal centres ell planned streets and parks, electric light, a filtered water supply, modern sanitation, schools, hospitals and recreation centres. When onc compares such modern planning with the slums of Calcutta and Bombay, the real nature of India's revolution-and the promise which 11 holds out for her people become impressively clear. The size and scope of that revolutoa are reflected in the many other industrial reatures to which the Indian Fire-Year Plan is giving birth. The projected oil refineries at Bombay, the machine tools and telephone factories ar Bangalore, the National Instruments factory at Jadavpur, rolling 20

·Lui
Hydro-electric power for Pakistan. Building work in progress on the dam
at Rasul, designed to supply the growing needs of industry and agnculture.
VVP
Shoe factory A typical
feature of the flourishing
new industrial town of
Faridabad, near Delhi.
The town was built by
the inhabitants, former
refugees.

·No text on this page.

·stock and cable factories, cement and paper mills, DDT and penicillin factories--these are but a few of the more spectacular items in the Plan. State Goverament projects are responsible for many more. HEALTH India's DDT and penicillin factories have been largely subsidised aod quipped by the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Interdacopal Children's Emergency Fund. It should be remembered that a raisiøg of general health standards throvghout South and South-East Asia is one of the objectives of the Colombo Plan. Is Ceylon, particularly, the Colombo Plan has made some striking contributions to the fight against disease. The incidence of tuberculosis in the island is dangerously high, and under the Technical Co-operation Scherwe an expert from the United Kingdom was invited to report on the best measures that could be adopted for combating the discase. At the request of the Ceylon Government the United Kingdom has sent two Thoracic Surgery teams, and specialist training has also been arranged in the Vallad Kingdom for Ceylonese doctors and ourses. In addition, the Australian Government is paying for the establishment of fully equipped T.B. chnics in each of Ceylon's nine provincial capitals. Another notable contribution to medical science in the Colombo Plan srta is the financial aid given by the New Zealand Government towards che cost of equipping the All-India Medical Institute at New Delhi. 3. Aims and Aid In the foregoing pages, particular emphasis bas been placed upon development in lodia, Pakistas, Ceylon and Malaya. But it was never intended that the Colombo Plan should confine itself exclusively to countries of the Commonwealth. It sbould be realised that a great deal of development is going on clsesshere in South-East Asia; in Burma, Thailand, ladonesia, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, and the Philippines. In every case the emphasis is upon increased food production, for it cannot be stated too often shas this is the first requirement of the area as a whole. In an area like South and South-East Asia, with some hundred years of letny to make up, successful development of almost any kind is beset with 21 ·difficulties. National economics can all too easily be overstrained, and their balance can all too easily be upset. Only by a carefully co-ordinated effort, 50 spread out as to make the best of available resources in the meeting of primary needs, can the future of such an area be assured. The area as a whole presents innumerable problems to the planner, with the vast size of many of the countries and the heavy overtaxing of communictions. There is a desperate lack of mechanisation and an even more desperatc lack of trained technical personnel. There is also an habitual incros on the part of many of the people the product of centuries of poverty, ignorance and illiteracy and there are prejudices and superstitions to be overcome that are older than history. There is, finally, a serious lack of capital. Against so many difficulties only the most careful planning, the most determined effort and the most considered use of available resources can hope to contend successfully. ALL ARE HELPING On the other hand, the success of the Colombo Plan to date has proved how much can be donc when careful planning and determined effort are forthcoming South and South-East Asia, after all, is rich in raw materials. It has an almost wexhaustible supply of manpower on which it can rely. Its power potential especially in India and Pakistan--is almost infinite, and the land itself is fertile and largely productive. Shortage of technical skills has been met from a number of outside sources. And without in any way belitting the tremendous efforts which the arca is putting into the working out of its own salvation, it cannot be denied that such technical assistance has proved most valuable. The receiver countries themselves have been the first to acknowledge as much. Let us therefore consider a few of the forms that outside aid has taken, not merely in technical assistance but also in financial aid. Apart from the provision of technical assistance, the financial contribution of the United Kingdom has been mainly confined to the release of sterling balances to India, Pakistan and Ceylon. Release of sterling balances will amount to £255 million in altwand they will represent a beavy drain on British postwar economy. Most of the money, of course, has had to be translated into capital goods and equipment.which have themselves been scarce. And it is estimated that about half the capital equipment imported by the Colombo Plan countries will have come from Britain by the end of the six-year period. In view of our own grave shortage of equipment and materials, this in itself is remarkable. And despite our own capital needs and our limited overseas trading surpluses, our annual commitment to the Colombo Plan is now at the rate of pearly £50 million. Our contribution for rehabilitation and development in the United Kingdom territories in grants and loans direct, or through the Colonial Development Corporation and the Colonal Development and Welfare Votc to daie, amounts to over 30 million. Recently the intention has been 22 ·reaffirmed of giving the Federation of Malaya, is fulfilment of earlier undertakings, the financial belpricoessary to ensure that plans for development and defence should not be retarded in 1954. We have also managed to make sterling available through the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development for loans to countries in the area. Finalis, me bare recently adranced a further £10 million to Pakistan for imeediate aid in food production. Canada has voted 19 million for each of the financial years 1951-2 and 1952-3 for Colombo Plan aid. This has belped to relieve food shortages in boch Lodua and Pakistan, helped to finance the Mayurakshi irrigation project in lodia, provided transport for the State of Bombay, built a cement factory and helped to equip the Commonwealth Livestock Farm in the Thal (the latter along with Australia and New Zealand), assisted in the Warsak hydro-electric scheme, financed an aerial survey of resources in Baluchistan and contnbuted to Rural Development and the equipment of a sew fishing industry in Ceylon. Australian aid has been promised to a total of over £25 million over the $u-year period of the Plan. This has already helped to relieve food shortages, assisted development at Tungabhadra and elsewhere in India, provided tractors, meters and pumping equipment for the Thal, supplied diesel locomotives, telecommunications and radio equipment for Pakistan, provided a ficer of tractors and will provide a chain of T.B. clinics for Ceylon, and has belped various development schemes in Indonesia, Cambodia, Vies Nam and Laos New Zealand's contributions have helped defray the cost of equipping the All-India Medical Institute, and have assisted in founding the Thal Livestock Farm and equipping a cement factory in Pakistan for the lining of irrigation canals. In Ceylon it has established the Dry Farming Research Szaúon at Maha Ilupallama. In addition to all this we should not forget the very generous grants made by the Government of the United States under its Point Four programme and other schemes, the large loans made to countries in the area by the laternational Bank of Reconstruction and Development, grants made by che Ford Foundation, and the help given by the various United Nations agencies like the World Health Organisation and the Food and Agriculture Organisation. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE If all the above list reads rather like a catalogue, it may at least bare sented to stress the wide variety of assistance which has been contributed to the success of the Colombo Pian and the development of South and South-East Asia as a whole. The Technical Co-operation Scheme itself is playing an invaluable part in making available to the area the best technical skill and instruction and training equipment that the Commonwealth has to offer. Apart from the steady sucam of experts that it supplies for various 23 ·projects where help is required, there are also the training facilities which it is extending to students from all the countries in the area. The flow of equipment for training establishments and research institutes in the area is steadily increasing. The United Kingdom, for example, has agreed to supply about £700,000 worth of equipment, and is at present examining further requests estimated to cost some £300,000. Although the United Kingdoms territories (to which assistance from the United Kingdom is given direct) do not draw on the United Kingdom contribution to the Scheme, they do draw on the contributions of the orber participating countries. According to the latest progress report the United Kingdom territories received from this sources in the three years ending 31st July, 1953, twenty-seven experts and a hundred and eight places for trainees, together with equipment valued at $28,000. In their turn the United Kingdom territories themselves provided, or have offered to provide, training facilities fos candidates from Ceylon and India in fields as varied as areca nut growing and rural broadcasting. THE FUTURE We began by saying that poverty, bunger and disease anywhere in the world today are a potential threat to the peace, prosperity and health of the world at large. That is itself is sufficient reason for our interest in the wellbeing of an area scemingly remote. South and South-East Asia, of course, is not remote; so area in the modern world can ever be so again. But it is not too much to assert that our interest in the future of South and South-East Asia is primarily disinterested. It is a natural consequence of our wish to see that area independent, scable in its economy and happy in its democratic way of life. South and South-East Asia, if we assist them with the means in our power, can contribute materially to the common good and the world's cultural heritage. We believe in their right to do so. 4. The New Delhi Conference, 1953 "At the present time the programmes of the Colombo Plan countries may be considered as having generally passed out of the stage of preparation and into that of execution. In some of the original country programmes, of course, & number of projects were already under way which the Plan was launched. But it is broadly true that the programmes are only now 24

·Fish breeding in Java. Thus industry
provides occupation for 200,000 Javanese
and its improvement is the subject of
intensive research
Photo UNO
*
Fighting tuberculosis.
This ambulance takes
part in Burma's drive
against the disease, which
includes a nauon-wide
immunisation campaign.
Photo ULO

·A
la
Ung in India wd and nuus
the sun in transitare si pu...
1. inhabitants of the nt 1 1 1 1 1 indubim un
them clie's

·reaching the stage where tangible returns on any considerable scale can reasonabiy be looked for." This quotation, from the second anoual report of the Consultative Committee on Economic Development in South and South-East Asia, sums up the results achieved in the second year of the Plao. This report was prepared at the fifth meeting of the Consultative Committee which was held in New Delhi from 13th to 17th October. It was attended by delegations from Australia, Burma, Cambodia, Canada, Ceylon, India, Indonesia, Laos, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Ugited Kingdom, including representatives from the Federation of Alalaya and Singapore, the Vaited States, Viet Nam, all of whose governments are full members of the Committee which tras set up, following the meening of Commonwealth Forrigo Alinisters at Colombo in January, 1950, to provide a framework within which an international co-operative effort could be promoted 10 assist countries of South and South-East Asia in raising their living standards. The New Delhi meeting was also attended by observers from Thailand, the lovertagonal Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East, and by the Director of the Colombo Plan Bureau for Technical Co-operation. THE ECONOMIC BACKGROUND Ia dhe year ended 30th June, 1953, the second year of the Colombo Plan, the public authorites of ladia, Pakistan, Ceylon, Burma, Indonesia, the Federation of Malaya, Singapore and British Borneo, spent £429 million on development compared wath £345 million in the preceding feat. In the third year, 1953-4, theur estudiated expenditure is put at £528 million The breakdown by countries is given in the chart on page 31. Increased development expenditures were made and are planned against a background of cconomic conditons more unfavourable than in 1951-2. During the first half of 1951, most member countries in the Colombo Plan area, being esporters of primary produce, enjoyed very favourable terms of trade following the rise in price of this produce after the outbreak of kosolites in Korea. Export ertungs, national incomes and public revenues ipse and the countries were, in the main, able to finance their des clopment programmes almost entirely out of their oud resources and at the same time to increase the external and internal reserves. But the terms of trade were already worsening when the first report of the Consultatie Cominuttee was written in March, 1952, and the unfavourable uend conunucd i 1952-3 Prices of most of the area's export commodities fell considerably from boom levels, and the resulting fall in export earnings and national incomes (except is the case of Burma) adversely affected puble icieoues. While saronal incomes had fallen, internal costs tended to remain at the high levels to which they rose in 1951, Budget deficits repuced, or thresteaed to replace, the orerali budget surpluses of the boom period, and Gosciments maintained or increased their development 25 ·expenditure only by drawing heavily on reserves, by external aid and, in some cases, by internal loans. Some engaged in a measure of deficit financing by borrowing from the banking system in order to macet current expenditure. In these difficult circumstances most of the countries of the area were left with reduced resources while the costs of their development programmes bad risen well above the 1950 estimates. Nevertheless nearly all the countries, as the figures quoted in an earlier paragraph show, managed to speod rather more on their development programmes in 1952-3 than they spent in 1951-2. If, however, success is to attend their efforts to press on with their development plans, as they are determined to do, three conditions will, as the Report points out, have to be met. " First, they must conccntrate on the essentials of their programmes and must make the fullest use of all their resources, human, material and financial. Secondly, they must follow sound internal policies designed to check inflation and secure the highest possible level of saving and investment. Thirdly, the present flow of external financial aid must be continued and, if possible, increased." PROGRESS WITH DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS Developnient programmes are in no sense rigid blucprints incapable of adjustment to changing circumstances. In some countries the task of formulating a co-ordinated programme which is more than a list of projects has still to be completed, but this is not holding up work on the projects. Broadly speaking, 30 per cent of expenditure in 1952-3 was on agriculture and multi-purpose projects, 25 per cent on communications and transport, 20 per cent on social services, 10 per cent on industry, fuel and power, and the balance on research and miscellaneous items. This is expenditure by public authorities, which is the main content of the programmes (scc chart on p. 32). In most countries there has also been an appreciable increase in private investment, and several governments have taken special measures to encourage the investment of foreign as well as domestic capital. BURMA The Government of Burma is considering a development programme which aims at increasing Burma's gross national product from £322.35 million in 1952-3 to £525 million in 1959-60. It would involve an intestment of [562.6 million of which about £225 million would be spent on irrigation, transport, communications, clectric power, mining and industry, and the rest on agriculture, housing, health and welfare. In the meantime, substantial progress is being made in rchabilitating the mar-damaged economy and in carrying out new development projects. Rail, inland waterway and port facilities are being schabilitated. Farmers are being helped with subsidies and loans to increase the actcage under paddy, corton, groundauts, jute and coconuts. la 1952, the arca 26 ·under paddy was increased by 633,000 actes. The Gorernment has estab lshad a cotton seed farm and a dairy farm and has bought 300,000 coconut tree seedlings. Plass for industrial expansion are is hand and projects wonder tray include a new oil rekoers at Chaut and a small sulphuric acid plant which is zmring completion. Under the Pyidatka (Welfare Stare) scheme the Government makes grants to townships for the provision of various community facilities such as roads, schools and wells. CEYLON Following the visit of an International Bank Mission, the Ceylon Government has established a Cabinct Planning Committee and a Planning Seamuzat, and bas decided 10 forsoulate a £1125 million development scheme. Good progress has been made with schemes already in fuand. Bermee 1947 and 1953 about 71,000 acres of new irrigable land were reclaimed, and the current annual rate of reclamation is about 20,000 acres, mainly wder the Gal Oya scheme and exclusive of high land cleared for cultivation, The first stage of the hydro-electric scheme ar Norton Bridge, providing 25,000 kilowarts of power capacity, has been completed. Rozds and railways leave been improved and a new quay completed as part of the COLOMBO PLAN TECHNICAL CO-OPERATION SCHEME (up ra 30th June, 1953) Counma Pracriling TRAINING TXINTV XXPRETS PLACES Countries Racricing PARETS PLASZS Aarth 402 Bruns 2 Coada 31 318 Barnes 7 Czylos 3 Ceylan Iadea 5 98 69 39 Ne Zaland 140 Indosatu 268 352 76 65 3 Caused Kingdoes 78 Federazios o Alzay Nepal 383 North Som.co 4 Pakistan 28 Phillipsis Sarah Stageport Tekant 2 12 1 16 27 TOTAL 177 TOTAL 177 27 ·expenditure only by drawing heavily on reserves, by external aid and, in some cases, by internal loans. Some engaged in a measure of deficit financing by borrowing from the banking system in order to meet current expenditure. In these difficult circumstances most of the countries of the area were left with reduced resources while the costs of their development programmes had risen well above the 1950 estimates. Nevertheless nearly all the countries, as the figures quoted in an earlier paragraph show, managed to spend rather more on their development programmes in 1952-3 than they spent in 1951-2. If, however, success is to attend their efforts to press on with their development plans, as they are determined to do, three conditions will, as the Report points out, have to be met. * First, they must concentrate on the essentials of their programmes and must make the fullest use of all their resources, human, material and financial. Secondly, they must follow sound internal policies designed to check inflation and secure the highest possible level of saving and investment. Thirdly, the present flow of external financial aid must be continued and, if possible, increased." PROGRESS WITH DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS Development programmes are in no sense rigid blueprints incapable of adjustment to changing circumstances. In some countries the task of formulating a co-ordinated programme which is more than a list of projects has süll to be completed, but this is not holding up work on the projects. Broadly speaking, 30 per cent of expenditure in 1952-3 was on agriculture and multi-purpose projects, 25 per cent on communications and transport, 20 per cent oa social services, 10 per cent on industry, fuel and power, and the balance on research and miscellancous items. This is expenditure by public authorities, which is the main content of the programmes (sec chart on p. 32). In most countries there has also been an appreciable increase in private investment, and several governments have taken special measures to encourage the investment of foreign as well as domesuc capital. BURMA The Government of Burma is considering a development programme which aims at increasing Burma's gross national product from 4322.35 million in 1952-3 10 2525 mullion in 1959-60. It would involve an invest. ment of £562,6 million of which about £225 million would be spent on irrigation, transport, communications, electric power, mining and industry, and the rest on agriculture, housing, health and welfarc. In the meantime, substantial progress is being made in rehabilitating the sar-damaged economy and in mrrying out ook devclopment projects. Rail, inland waterway and port facuties are being rehabilitated. Farmers are being helped with subsidies and loans to increase the ectcafe under paddy, cotton, groundauts, jule and coconuts. In 1952, the area 26

·Technical help Colombo
Plan agncultural students
at a rescarch station in
Brian, learning how to
use a spraying machine
Mrto Plant Pro non
Xurso in training
Brash and Ceylonese
nursoy together to
to a class at :
hoznih of the London
Chat Berpiral

·scheme for improving Colombo Harbour. Industrial development has been slower, but the Government's plywood factory has been reorganised, work is well in hand on vegetable oil, paper, caustic soda and DDT, and ceramic factories, and the fishing industry is benefiting from personnel and equipment supplied by Canada. There has been a good response from villagers to the need for free labour and land to implement a rural development scheme. INDIA Jodia has a Five-Year Plan which now envisages an outlay of £1,552 million in the period 1951-6, of which agriculture, irrigation and power will claim over one-third and transport and communications nearly onen third. On the basis of this plan outlay for the public sector for the six years is now estimated at £1,983 million. In the period 1951-3 483 million was spent on development in the public sector. Considerable progress was achicred in the various programmes for agricultural development. Work progressed satisfactorily on the Bhakra-Nangal, Damodar Valley, Hirakud, Tungabhadra and other major irrigation and power schemes which so far havc benefited 1.4 million acres of land and increased power generating capacity by 315,000 kilowatts. Between 1951 and 1953 these and other minor irrigation works benefited 3.5 million acres of land. Another half-million acres frere reclaimed by the Central Tractor Organisation. As a result of these and other advances, and with the help of good weather, food production in 1952-3 was 5 million tons greater than in 1951-2. In the field of community development, a total of 30,000 villages were being covered by October, 1953, and the programme is being widened to provide a comprehensive national extension service to a large part of the country. It is envisaged that by 1955-6 nearly one-quarter of the rural population will be under the scope of this community development programme, of the Government's industrial projects, the Sindri fertiliser factory, the Chittaranjan locomotive factory, the Indian Telephone Industries factory and the Uttar Pradesh Government's Precision Instruments factory went into production, the Hindustan Shipyard completed three ships during 1952, and supcrphosphate, cement, newsprint and machinc tool factories are expected to start production in 1953-4. Progress was made with rchabilitating and improving the railways. In the private sector of industry the two main stec producers arc increasing their capacity and to oil refinerics are being constructed near Bombay. INDONESIA Indonesia became a member of the Colombo Plan in 1953. Since independence it has been faced sith the need to repair the devastation of var and with an internal security problem. It has no development 28 ·programme Planning Bureau has been set up to prepare onc-but certain derelopment activities are going forward. During the last few years Learly one million miles of irrigation canals have been reconstructed. A start has been made on the South Borneo drainage plan involving an area of 500,000 acres, and on motorising the fishing fleet. Progress is being made in moxing population from over-populated to under-populated areas. Small scale and cottage industries are being encouraged. Communications are being improved. In the private sector, the oil companies have increased prodoction so that petroleum products are now Indonesia's second most important esport commodity. NEPAL Nepal hopes to submit a draft development plan to the next Consultative Committee meeting. But, says the Report, there is not much prospect of Nepal being able to finance its development out of its own resources for some years to come. Out of cxpenditure on development in 1951-3 of £16 million, £1.2 million were provided by India and the United States. Roads and air services have been developed. A livestock development farm has been established and plans are being made for a dairy farm. A village development scheme has been inaugurated. Minor irrigation projects to irrigate 16,000 actes are cxpected to be completed in 1954. A 1,500 kilowatt diesel plant is being set up to supply clectricity to Kathmandu. A geological survey of Nepal is in hand and an aerial survey of western Nepal has been completed, PAKISTAN One feature of the year 1952-3 for Pakistan has been a serious food shortage resulting from drought and, to a lesser extent, locust infestation. The United States, Canada and Australia have come forward with wheat and the U.K. with a credit of £10 million to help Pakistan over her present difficulties. To avoid a recurrence of the situation, however, the Government has set up a Grow More Food Committee with extensive powers to assist agricultural schemes likely to produce quick results. Further steps have also been taken to increase yields. The Six-Year Development Plan ard Two-Year Priority Programme are being reviewed by a new Planning Board and priority is to be given to projects which promise a quick increase in the production of food or other essential commodities. Efenditure on development has been rising steadily from (31 million is 1951-2 to an estimated £61 million in 1953-4 and is already showing results. For example, compared with the position at the time of partition, total clectric power capacity has been increased from 10,000 to 140,000 kilowatts, the number of cotton spindles installed or being installed has 10.creased from 178,000 to 950,000 and of looms from 4,824 to 13,300. Three thousand jute looms has been brought into production and internal requiremens for jute goods are being me, woollen manufacturing capacity

·Land girls
The Colombo Plan
them to travel from Ceylon to Br*
for a course of farming instruction.
Bigges crops.
Punjab
farmers study the results
of treating sugar cane with
chemical fertiliser. They
found it made the cants
grow higher.

·CHARTI What each country spends on development Each symbol - £10.000.000 Sterling 1951-52 1952.53 1953-54 (Estimate) BURXA 211m. (17m. (29m CEYLON 120m 123m 27 m INDU 1219 m. 26 m 0332m INDONESIA (37m LEOm, 246m. MAUTA and BRITISH BORNEO 217 m. PAKISTAN Cim. (61m. TOTAL £345 mil. £429 mil. £528 mil. COSA LAOS - MET-KAM Not Induded. These countries ve anying out some sentyment and vocal welfare groints, but they cannot embark on a full programma of Honoparent activity with the Nation becomes more peaceful and serded ATPAL ** to expens upproximately. (Oon derelopment 1953/54 31 ·has been created, sugar milling capacity has been increased from 51,000 to 92,000 tons, and a fertiliser plant is being built with an annual capacity of 50,000 tons of ammonium sulphate. Progress has also been made with various multi-purpose and irrigation schemes, such as the Thal. MALAYA AND BRITISH BORNEO Apart from revisions of estimates to take account of higher labour and material costs, there has been little important change in the development plans of Singapore, North Bomeo and Sarawak. But the Federation of Malaya has included in its estimates of development expenditure the cost of resettling in new villages those parts of the community most exposed to Communist terrorism. The emergency has also caused some changes in priority, in favour of meeting the need for improved communications. With the prospect of being able to devote more resources to normal development activity, a revision of the Federation's plan is proposed after an International Bank Mission has made a survey of resources and needs which is due to begin in 1954. The following arc examples of results achieved by 1952-3. In the Federation of Malaya, over 400,000 people were resettled in over 500 villages; the irrigation of 50,000 acres of paddy land were completed at Tanjong Karang; the first stage (40,000 kilowatts) of the Connaught Bridge Power Station was completed and 200 miles of line were rclaid on the East Coast Railway. In Singapore, a new power station with a capacity of 50,000 kilowatts was brought into operation, and substantial progress was made with the new international airport and housing schemes. In North Bornco irrigation, communications, clectricity and housing schemes were under way, and in Sarawak progress was made with improving roads, air transport and telecommunications. CAMBODIA, LAOS AND VIET NAM Very limited financial resources and preoccupation with Communist insurrection have meant that the development activities of these countries have so far been small in relation to needs. Cambodia has no co-ordinated development programme, but it is carrying out a number of projects in agriculture, transport and social services which are calculated to give quick results, and work has started on a similar programme of flood-control, irrigation and drinage. Development cxpenditure by public authorities amounted to £2.5 million in 1951, 48 million in 1952, and the estimate for 1953 is £4.4 million. Laos contemplates giving priority to increasing agricultural production and to improving road and river transport. In Viet Nam, where military activity has been going on for cight years, the Goverment has been compelled to concentrate on mecting military needs, for example by asphalting or widening strategic roads, repairing the railways and building houses for refugees. At the same time, however, rice, rubber 30 ·+ production has increased and a smart bus to ICE Wie fragen posed land back into cultiration, 67,500 2.5 barning te A 1951 ad 1953. EXTERNAL AID * uzor part of the effort insoired in Currie Current themes has to be made by the costries of the tercers. Ea Ace has been provided by member cototriss of the Colourbo PII le the area, by the laternational Bank, by the United Nocon khanical assistance programmes and by various Fragancias soc ic Ford Foundation. Moreover, scree countries in the area ou te helping each other, Assistance is of two kinds: familia ial FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE Unred Kingdom is continuing to release selling balances to Irem, un and Ceylou at the rate of about 142 millio: 2 yez com of the Colombo Plan. In additio, 2 cdit of LID or Kas tam $ tizlable to Pakistan for the purchase in the United Kingdom of far schemes condicating to agricola al prodretica; se her oa las been spent of committed for rehabilitation and developer e Federation of Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo and Serenza; menet is being made available out of the United Kingdom's capital pon to the International Bank for development in the Commalba tries of the sterling area, of which 55 million has already been cho fato projects in India. A Commonwealth Developer Finance 7228 *ick an authorised capital of £15 million has also been formed Me XTERXAL CAPITAL AID : EXPENDITURE AND COMITMETS, 1951-3 Erfrested in reling (Tolliams) Cogna Cara latar are LAS. an san Country Era Stress till 5.36 4.56 0.56 0.2 10.3 7.0 0.7 1.13 Zalando 0.25 0,5 0.5 34.68 8.1 4.71 0.25 745 173 0.5 Itrala ter pledged 250 a the Ens det end the Cclocobo PL 326-year pernd of the Colombo persod. Already, 42379 DO 174 By the end of 192-3, (10 68 Lot 1.5 ready betogerit, bees spect or cred for anyone in India, Pakistas Calon 24 a 2012 Brent for creditare m Inte, Leszed Sexet has a met foot thorage w Colon ud Inder eu. in Iada d Patut with a beat flo Las Foted for set 29 miles the form of gesi ad Liz: kapade total dl [1.5 cron; for the practice of stas Notay ta fschanced so far [O: mind is not Estero derelopers Zettai gerina 0907 panget n Trasar.core-Coctis to eta ·How the money was spent has been c to 92,000 t of 50,000 t various my Chart shows details for Ceylon, India, Pakistan.' Malaya and British Dependencies in South-East Each symbol -- 210,000,000 Sterling 1951.52 £61m AGAICULTURE MULTI-PURPOSE PROJECTS £314m Apart fi material or plans of Malaya hg of resettlir Communi' priority, i With the ment actin Internatio is due to The fo Federatio villages; Tanjong Bridge Pa the East In Sin was brou internatic In Nc schemes roads, ai TRANSPORT & COMMUNICATIONS £951m FUEL & POWER £23m INDUSTRY 215/m SOCIAL SERVICES £79m Very insurrec have so develop agricult results, irrigatic amount for 199 agricul Viet N Gover for exa and bu RESEARCH. & OTHER PROJECTS £29. TOTAL" £334 mil, Ceylon's allocation for these groups not indudes £4101 *&urma moltocarton by troup total panditure is thown 32

·No text on this page.

·No text on this page.

·DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH AND SOUTH-EAST ASIA 30 200 1000 LES 1 BURMA 1 1952, 633,000 more Ecres sown for paddy than in 1951 20- LAOS INDO-CHINA in Viet Nam, area under rice Increased by 500,000 ccres since 1951 CAMBODIA Mergul Rxe D-Nha Y NAM Connaught Brdo NORTH BORNEO Jesseltona Labuan BRUNEI SARAWAK Sandakan FEDERATION OF MALAYA Kuala Lumpur Sibu Kuching SINGAPORE SUMATRA BORNEO CELEBES Icean halening Bandermasin Ket monten Project Jakarta N DON E SI A Rice production increased 7 per cent in 1952 Tatjaban JAVA tos 120€ ·THAL KASKMIA PAKISTAN 400,000 acres brought under food cultivation In 1952 BHAKRA-NANGAL Rasul NEPAL Karachi DAMODAR VALLEY LOWER SINB Kan012 Bhavnagar Sindri Chittaranjan Arabian Sea Gangapur Calcu Bambay TUNGABHADRA HIRAKUD INDIA 31 million ocres benefited from Irrigation during 1952-53 Bangalore ON Madras Bay of Be Lower Bhayan! Coshia Janna GAL OYA Colombo CEYLON Laksspana 20.000 ocres of Irrigable le opened up in 1957.53 nogo KEY w M Multi-Purpose Projects Electric Power Schemes Port Development New Industries Other Major Projects 9 ·130 DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH AND SOUTH-EAST ASIA 30* * 400 MOLES BURMA 1 1952, 633,000 more Es Xws for paddy thom In 1951 20- uos 10 INDO-CHINA In Viet Nam, cred under rice increased by 500,000 ocres since 1951 CAMBODU RIxe D-NOI n N NORTH BORNEO Jesselton Labuan BRUNEI Corm.hindi lu Sandakan FEDERATION DE MALAYA Kuala Lumpur SARAWAK - Sibu Kuching SINGAPORE SUMATRA BORNEO CELEBES Ocean Piemong Bandiermasin Kelmons Project INDONESIA Rice production increased 7 per cent in 1952 Jakaru Tjitjaban JAVA woons 1tos $20'E ·in London to provide assistance for sound development projec Commonwealth. The United Kingdom plays a further part in the ment of the area as a major source for the area's imports of capit and 1952 saw a marked improvement in its ability to meet demna Details of contributions from other countries are shown on pag In addition, the U.S. Export Import Bank has made loans million to Pakistan and £24,7 million to Indonesia, the U. Foundation has made grants of £1.5 million to India and 1 m Pakistan mainly for village development; and the International I loaned £39.2 million to India and £22.3 million to Pakistan, In some cases the aid has been in the form of grants to meet th cost of a development scheme; in others, equipment or consume such as wheat, the local sales proceeds being applied to devel projects. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE Under the Technical Co-operation Scheme of the Colombo Australia, Canada, Ceylon, India, New Zealand, Pakistan and the Kingdom have agreed to provide technical assistance to a value o 48 over the six years ending 30th June, 1957. The Council a rinis the Scheme maintains close touch with the agencies of the Un and the United States, which are also providing technical assist.cc arca, so as to ensure that there is no waste of effort through duplic Since its inauguration the flow of assistance has increased steadily 30th June, 1953, a total of 177 experts and 1,145 training places had provided, see table on page 27. A feature of the activides una Scheme in 1952-3 has been the increasing extent to wluch equipmen! been supplied for use by the countries of the area in developing facilities for producing cechnicians of all grades. By 30th Junc, 19528 of a total expenditure under the Scheme of £894,159, over £65,000 been spent on such equipment. This sum did not take into account many requests for cquipment which were at that date under considere by donor countries or which it had already in principle been agtece supply. Together these amounted to a considerably larger sum. . CONCLUSION The report concludes that the Colombo Plan programmes are gr a crucial stage. The decline in export camnings and its reflection in reduc resources has added to the difficulty of the task of carrying them out. difficulties can be a spur and a challenge, insccad of a deterrent, and Colombo Plan countries have shown that they can plan doth : realistically, and readjust themselves to good fortune and handle courage and resourcefulness have been severely tested and the manner in which they have responded is perhaps the sures gurrantee that the Colombo Plan will come up 10, and even surpass, u s with which it began. te last 1

·No text on this page.