HC Deb 10 July 1962 vol 662 cc1138-9
26. Mr. Prentice

asked the Secretary for Technical Co-operation if Her Majesty's Government will consider raising the sums pledged to the United Nations Expanded Technical Assistance Programme and to the Special Fund for 1962 in view of the vote recorded by this country in support of the United Nations Development Decade.

The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Mr. Iain Macleod)

I have been asked to reply.

I would refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply which my right hon. Friend the Secretary for Technical Co-operation gave on 29th May to the hon. Member for Dundee, East (Mr. G. M. Thomson). The amount of our contributions to these programmes for 1963 will be reviewed in the autumn.

Mr. Prentice

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that after the General Assembly passed a resolution to create the Development Decade in the 1960s with the objective of doubling the rate of growth of the under-developed countries by 1970, the first step was to set up a new target for the Special Fund for 1962 of 150 million dollars? Would not it be a good test of our sincerity and that of others to raise our target for this year so that we pay a proportionate share of the new target and not of the old one?

Mr. Macleod

I do not think that the resolution to which the hon. Gentleman referred, No. 1715, called on the member States to review the appointed objective. We are reviewing our programme for 1963, as I have already indicated, in the autumn. As the hon. Member knows, we give very great help and we are the largest contributor to voluntary programmes after the United States of America.

Mr. Gaitskell

Would not the right hon. Gentleman agree that in considering how much aid could or should be provided, it is very desirable to take into account the prices of raw materials and foodstuffs and the way in which the fall in these prices has affected the economies of the countries we wish to help while, on the other hand, helping us because of the fall in the price of our imports?

Mr. Macleod

I would agree with that. The main object of the Development Decade is a sound economic growth of the less well-developed countries and we are wholeheartedly behind this object.

Forward to