SUNDAY, NOVEMSM 9, 1964
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
PACE THRE I
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1964 THE MICHIGAN DAILY PAGE THRET~
;, -
FOOD SHORTAGE:
India Population Problems Stall Economy
By CONRAD FINK chase a six-month supply of wheat
Associated Press Staff Writer on world markets.
NEW DELHI;-Standing before Too Many People
kings, princes and premiers at the The harsh reality is that In-
Cairo Nonaligned Nations Confer- dia's population is increasing fast-
ence this month, Indian Prime er than its economic growth. In-
Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri de- stead of moving ahead, the na-
clared his nation is technically tion's economy as a whole is slip-
capable of producing nuclear ping backward.
weapons. America has spent tremendous
Returning home a few days la- sums in India-almost $6 billion
ter, Shastri gathered his worried since 1956-and is shipping in
cabinet ministers to discuss the 600,000 tons of wheat a month.
nation's food crisis and learned Even this expensive aid effort
there was not enough sugar, bread hsn't been enough to guarantee
and milk for the 21 / million resi- #food for all. Russia has emphasiz-
dents of his already-hungry capi- ed flashy assistance projects on
tal. businesslike terms, leaving Wash-
The nonaligned leaders got a ington and a few other Western
The onalgnedleadrs gt acapitals holdingthcolybg
picture of great technical advance- Wit hdicn the costly bag. in
ment in India. The cabinet min-' With discontent widespread in
iters were advised to eat raw IIndia and food demonstrations
unprocessed sugar to set an exw breaking out, the political imph-
npoescations are enormous.
ample. Key
Disparity Vast, sprawling India, though
These contradictory events i1- militarily weak, is the key to the
lustrate a tremendous gulf-it is East-West power balance in Asia.
apparent that while India dreams Only India has the manpower to
of steel mills, jet fighters and come close to countering the 700
transistor radios, India cannot feed millions of Communist China.
itself The food facts are these: And India, "the world's largest
-India's population, now about democracy," serves as a testing
480 million, is growing by 10-12 ground for America's argument
million annually. that newly independent, under-
World Copies U.S. Peace Corps
By The Associated Press program launched by President That's one reason why it's good
In the beginning there were Lyndon B. Johnson).j that we are not a government or-
grumbles that it might be noth- Six others-Afghanistan, Boli- ganization. The suspicion is grad-
ing more than an elaborate boon- via, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, ually dying away, but still the
doggle, a way to dodge military Philippines and Thailand - have Arab countries seldom ask us for
service or a way to see the world announced such programs but they any aid."
with Uncle Sam footing the bill. are not functioning yet. The ideal volunteer in most
But the Peace Corps - now With so many nations now en- countries, including the United
more than three and a half years gaged in such programs-foreign States, is considered to be the
old-quickly overcame the early as well as domestic-it might seem young college graduate. The Brit-
fears and survived the onslaughts that a member of Norway's Det ish, Australian and New Zealand
to become one of the most popu- Norske Fredkorps (35 members groups tend to use "school lead-
lar American ventures abroad. now on two years duty in Ugan- ers," that is, sudents who have
The greatest testimony to its da) could easily bump into some- completed secondary school but
acceptance, perhaps, lies in the one from West Germany's Deut- have not yet entered a university.
way it has been used as a model scher Entwicklungsdienst (14 now
by many other nations, who have on a slum clearance project in
affectionately embraced the Peace Dar-es-Salaam, Tanganyika) or
Corps idea. the Danish Mellemfolkeligt Sam-
A Rose Is a Rose virke (42 volunteers in nine Af-,
rican and Asian countries).-
Shorter Training
For many European countries,
older and experienced persons are
given preference. Thus the train-
ing period can be much shorter
than the one set up by the U.S.,
whih ha h a. 112 k wpl trii
-Daily-Philip Sherman
-Production of foodgrains, sta-
ple of all India diets, has been
stagnant for three years and
probably will remain stagnant for
a while.
-- Only continued emergency,
shipments of United States wheat
will ward off starvation. Even if
India spent every bit of available,
foreign exchange it could not pur-
developed nations can work out
their problems through democrat-
ic government.
Many undecided nations of Asia
and Africa, not at all convinced
there is inherent goodness in de-
mocracy, are watching both Com-I
CAN TECHNOLOGY OVERCOME A SOARING POPULATION and an inadequate food supply? This
is the problem faced by India today as explemplified by the picture above. A rising population en-
larged due to improvements in health and sanitation techniques is making an increasingly heavier
demand on a fixed amount of agricultural acreage. The United States and other countries are try-
ing to help India solve this problem.
The names vary-Det Norske
Fredkorps, Deutscher Entwick-
lungsdienst, Corp European des
Volontaires de la Paix, Mellem-
folkeligt Samvirke, Jongeren Vri-
jwilligers Programma, Association
Francaise des Volontaires du Pro-
gres-but they all have one thing
in common: a kindship to the
United States Peace Corps.
Like their American counter-
parts, Australians, Canadians,
Danes, Frenchmen, West Germans,
Dutch, New Zealanders, Norweg-
ians, Swiss and British are bus-
ily at work in backward areas of
Asia, Africa and Latin America.
They are sent forth by nations
having national service volunteer
overseas programs models some-
what along the lines of the U.S.
Peace Corps.
More in Planning
Also having such programs on
the planning boards although not
yet in operation are Argentina,
Austria, Belgium, Israel, Sweden,
and even little Lichtenstein.
There are domestic-type corps,
designed to operate within the
borders of individual countries, al-
ready functioning in Chile, El Sal-
vador, India, Kenya, Korea, North-
ern Rhodesia, Ethiopia, Nyasa-
land, Pakistan, Peru, Tanganyi-
ka, Viet Nam and the United
States (through the anti-poverty
Not Overlapping
But there is no duplication of wi cnas a w riin
effort or service, according to the program, followed by three weeks'
International Secretariat for Vol- orientation in the host country.
unteer Service, which functions The West German group which
in Washington as a sort of clear- went to Tanganyika was made up
ing house. of skilled workers and technicians,
The ISVS is housed in the Peace requiring relatively little prior
Corps Bldg. and the American training.
Corps has been model, test tube Money plays a role in the
and midwife for many of the oth- length of training, since many for-
ers. Much of its experience has eign corps operate on small budg-
been channeled through ISVS to ets. Another result is that there
other nations attempting such is virtually no on-the-scene ad-
programs. ministrative supervision of per-
There are differences, however. sonnel, as compared with the U.S.
The British Voluntary Service program. The American system is
Overseas and similar volunteer to have a Peace Corps represen-
groups in Belgium, Holland, West tative, a doctor and a secretary in
Germany, Denmark, Norway and each country where American
Sweden are products of private corpsmen are at work.
enterprise, rather than govern- When U.S. corpsmen finish their
mental agencies. However, most two-year service they receive i
get official help in meeting costs. readjustment allowance of $1600.
Colonial Image British volunteers, for example,
The British, for example, have get $420 and Norway's Fredkorps
volunteers in more than 50 coun- veterans receive $850. West Ger-
tries and one of the VSO execu- man volunteers receive pocket
tives, Michael Adams, says it had money on the job and $50 a month
the initial problem of trying tQ put into a savings account at home
live down the image of Britain's for them. The Dutch volunteers
colonial past. get a clothing allowance of about
"Some of the newer countries $180, less than $20 pocket money
are very suspicious of our inten- during training, and a resettle-
tions. They think the British are ment allowance on returning from
coming back under another hat, assignment.
I
National
Roundup
By The Associated Press
TOLEDO - A firm deadlock'
over the issue of manning the'
presses threatened yesterday to
prove a major stumbling block in
effort to end a 116-day-old strike
against Detroit's two daily news-'
papers.'
Walter Maggilio, director of fed-
eral mediation activity, told news-
men that the publishers and the
pressmen's union appeared to be
"in the area of agreement" on
all issues except the number of
men needed to man the presses.
* * * ,
WASHINGTON - President
Lyndon B. Johnson has asked'
Douglas Dillon to remain indef-
initely as Secretary of the Treas-
ury, informed sources said yester-
day.
During the presidential election
campaign, Dillon said he still con-
sidered himself a liberal Republi-
can but openly attacked policies
recommended by Republican nom-
inee Sen. Barry Goldwater.
* * *
MIAMI--An unofficial morator-
ium on anti-Castro forays into
Cuba, in effect for months, may
end soon, say Cuban exile leaders..
Some of the raiders were be-
lieved waiting for a clearer picture
of the situation between the Soviet
Union's new regime and the Cas-
tro government in Cuba. The last
exile attack was a Sept. 13 shell-
ing of a Spanish freighter.
LECTURES On
LOVE, SEX
and
MARRIAGE
Nov. 14 and Nov. 21
10 a.m.-12 noon
Call
Planned Parenthood Clinic
663-3306
munist China and India. The na-
tion that advances fastest may
serve as the model for other coun-
tries that want refrigerators, ra-
dios and food.
Setback
If India falters or seeks solu-
tions by turning to authoritarian-
ism-Communist, conservative or
military-America's cause would
suffer a stunning blow.
At the moment, things have not
deteriorated that far. The In-
dian people have survived many
crises through the centuries and
things have a way of happening
slowly in India.
But it is clear that an acute
crisis exists and that the final
answer lies in how long the hu-
man misery of the countryside will
stay bottled up. The government,
entangled in a maze of bureaucra-
cy, needs time.
Farm Priority
Prime Minister Shastri, recog-
nizing this involves gearing a new
approach to agriculture-even if it
means sacrificing the policy of
"industry now, food later" that
flourished under former Prime
Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Over-
coming the imbalance in econom-
ic development which occurred
during the Nehru era is, in fact,
a major part of India's newly an-
nounced fourth five-year economic
plan.
Money spent on agriculture is
to be increased initially from 13.3
per cent of the total to 15.4 per
cent.- Funds allocated for educa-
tion and health will be increased
from 11 to 16 per cent.
Funds for power, transport and United States until at least 1971,
industry will drop from 61.2 to 55 when, says Food Minister Chi-
per cent, as now stands. dambaram Subramaniam, enough
Projects Underway grain should be produced locally.
Agriculture would have gotten But will U.S. generosity last
even more in preliminary plan- that long?
ning if it were not that greater, The question is asked by Indian
rapid shift in emphasis would officials aware that American
doom many industrial projects grain surpluses are dwindling.
now under way. Some industrial India realizes America's "food
projects such as fertilizer plants for peace" program developed aft-
are essential for eventual agri- er-not before - huge surpluses
cultural progress. clogged every grain elevator in
After the fourth plan begins, in the midwest.
The Soviet Union itself is forced
to buy grain abroad and couldn't
help much. India is diplomatically
at odds with most its neighbors,
including Communist China and
Pakistan.
Caaada nnd Australia, both
small nations, have shown they
would rather sell wheat for hard
currency. No other nation has
anywhere near the resources to
make a dent in India's needs.
Though India is thus boxed in,
Washington has not attempted to
squeeze out political concessions
in return for wheat. Washington
seems to feel an economically vi-
able India, safely within democ-
racy's camp, will be ample re-
ward.
April, 1966, there will be further
quiet shifts of money and resources
to strictly agricultural projects.
Moves in this direction already
have created political problems
for Prime Minister Shastri. Com-
munists, and orthodox Marxists
within his own Congress Party
charge he is betraying the Nehru
dream.
Birth Control
There remainis the task of con-
vincing a largely illiterate popu-
lation to cut the size of families
and introduce modern farming
methods.
So far, government birth-con-
trol programs have not made much
headway. The Indian peasant con-
siders a large number of sons
as social security. And he much
prefers farming with a water buf-
falo and stick plow, just as his
forefathers did for centuries.
India, unlike Communist China
or the Soviet Union, cannot open
new farm land-there is none.
Each of the 350 million acres avail-
able is heavily, if inefficiently,
farmed.
Dependence
India's food problem, then, boils
down to heavy dependence on the
American diplomats trying to
keep the grain coming often are
frustrated as the Indian govern-
rent makes moves like a recent
arms deal with Moscow. Where,
the diplomats ask, will India turn
if Congress gets angry and the
American grain is cut off?
I
Whether the plan will work
yet to be seen.
THE
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