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"For the cause that lacks assistance
'Gainst the wrongs that need resistance
For the, future in the distance,
And the good that we can do."
Wkt (modern times
its
MONDAY, JUNE 21, 1948.
WORLD RECOVERY IS EVERYONE'S JOB.
IN the closing hours of its sittings, the American Congress
( has overcome the moves to cut the amounts proposed for
the foreign aid programmes which have been generally called
the Marshall plan The effect of the compromise between the
House of Representatives and the Senate is that substantially
the same amount will be available for European recovery and
that the President will decide whether expenditure is to be
spread over 12 01 15 months The decision of Congress has an
importance far beyond the immediate political repercussions
in the United States itself in a Presidential election year, for
it marks the extent to which public thought is martyr. in
the United States on foreign policy in the past, foreign policy
has often been at the mercy of domestic feeling and thus un-
related to the responsibility that should dictate the actions of
a first-class Power or the decisions of the State Department
More than a year has elapsed since the Secretary of State
(Mr Marshall) saw the need of American aid being put forth
to stimulate world recovery In this period, the world situation i
has deteriorated because the means for rehabilitation have not
been available to many of the war shocked countries and the
gap has widened between countries whose prosperity was enhanced
by war and those who suffered economic loss 01 dis-
integration through was Twenty-five years ago, the notion
that the United States should contribute to the recovery of the '
world would have brought about the downfall of any American
administration that had proposed it On lessufilocks the
Democrats wrecked their political ship after the 1914-18 war
the adoption of the Marshall plan has, however, not been easy
Against the remaining "H S iJ.-^Ja of isolationism, the desperate
conditions in other countries had to bring forceful facts before
the plan could be commended to Congress committees and
smally gain the approval of Congi car. as a formal measure
During this period, the United States came to learn that world
recovery was not a remote matter affecting other countries only
World moapc"rity is threatened while other countries lack the
rudiments of prosperity One aspect of the Marshall plan is
that even the countries which benefit from the plan are required
to contribute to it to the extent that they are found to be
economically capable Another important fact is, that the United
States is not the only country which is contributing to world
recovery The contribution already made by Australia is greater
than that of the United States if regard be had to the relative
economic competence of the two countries The Auiti allan contributions
to the cause of world recovery are themselves something
that would have been politically impossible 25 years ago
and the United States, is not the only country in which
isolationism is a discarded and discredited tenet of foreign
policy
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