DIVIDED WORLD

New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 815, 11 March 1955, Page 22

DIVIDED WORLD

as remorselessly as an orange chopped by a cleaver. There are rich and poor in every society; wealthy and poor nations; Communist and non-Communist countries. Deeply concerned with the training of helpless and backward nations to win some happiness in this troubled world is Dr. Marie Berger, an American State Department official who visited us recently. world seems to be divided Dr. Berger, a modest, soft-spoken woman, has had an outstanding career. She comes from Chicago and received from the University there a B.A. in economics and a Doctorate of Laws two years later. She became a member of the Bar and entered the United States Civil Service, specialising in the legal problems of territories and island _possessions, After working for the Department of Agriculture she joined the newly-formed UNRRA and went to the Middle East, then to Greece immediately following the Allied invasion. She was wounded by tank fire in the Elas uprising in Athens and returned to the United States to work for the State Department on their Point Four Programme of relief for under-developed nations. After two and a half years as an attorney for the Programme in the Near East and African Region, she was appointes? Chief of the East African Region, which includes Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika, French and British Somalilands and the Trust Territory of Somalia. Miss Berger has served as adviser on United States delegations to the Trusteeship Council of the United Nations and the General Assembly. Now this remarkable woman is on a year’s travel grant through the Pacific, South-East Asia and the Middle East. In talking to The Listener, Dr. Berger brought home the importance of understanding root difficulties in striving to ‘improve the lot of poor peoples. "In Egypt," she said, "a young couple at twenty have five years to live-if they are lucky. They don’t expect to see their three or four children reach maturity. When they die their children will have to beg and steal. The whole family probably suffers from dysentery, malaria, tuberculosis; the children have no energy to play, nor the adults to work. Such

people are like prisoners in a dark room with rio door but one tiny window through which they can see the Europeans and Americans who walk about like gods. They want the things these people outside have and so to catch up they'll blow the roof off." Dr. Berger said that the Pacific Islands were regarded by political experts as a laboratory. Their problems, though none the less real, were not so crucial. In Fiji and Samoa the demand was for technological and social services. The native population did not wish to be a labouring class only. However, their tribal system made their approach to self-government difficult. If an Islander wants to go into business or a profession, that takes money, goods, or both, Then his poor relations, in accordance with custom, are liable to descend on him and expect a share of the wealthier one’s good fortune, and he, naturally, is eager to help them. Again, a communal land system is a hindrance to Westernisation, although in Samoa there is an abundance of land and plenty of fish. In order to take their place in the Western world Samoans are learning the ideas of justice and a court system. Dr. Berger considered she was fortunate in being able to study them at this important stage. She would like to come back in a few years’ time to see how they were succeeding. However, it has been her experience that human problems are never solved, they simply change into something else. In some parts of East Africa, outside the cities, the land was pre-Biblical in its lack of civilisation. The people did not even use the wheel. The enlightened Emperor of Ethiopia was encouraging education, and where, four years ago, there had been 80 university graduates, now there were a thousand. Of these, 200 would go to the United States and England before returning to serve in government or business. Because these people were so far behind in the race for civilisation, Dr. Berger said, they would advance much faster, They had no pride in their traditions as the Pacific Islander did. Their Coptic priesthood was ignorant but not a hindrance to progress in its outlook. The Italians had killed all educated Ethiopians. Consequently it would be (continued on next page)

fifteen years before trained young men were experienced enough to be supervisors of large projects. Under the Point Four Programme joint funds were made available to the Bank of Ethiopia. These were able to be withdrawn only under the signature of both parties, which meant that, in practice, consultation on all points was necessary. So the young Ethiopian administrators were trained without loss of "face." There are 77 permanent officials and experts in East Africa under Point Four. The United States spends something like five billion dollars a year in 35 independent countries. Europe was practically on its feet now, Dr. Berger said, and so Asia swallowed up the largest slice of Foreign Operations Administration funds.