What About Neutrals?

Just a week after President Eisenhower's advisory committee on foreign aid handed in its report, another panel of experts sent him a second report clashing with the first on a sizzling issue: U.S. aid ' to neutral nations. The committee headed by Steelman Benjamin F. Fairless had unanimously urged "a higher priority" in aid programs for "countries which have joined in the collective-security system" (TIME, March 11). The 13-member International Development Advisory Board, chaired by Movieman Eric Johnston, unanimously recommended increased U.S. aid for "countries wishing to remain free of all military alliances." Both reports are likely to be praised and damned aplenty during 1957's looming great debate on foreign aid.

The reports agree that economic aid to underdeveloped countries is essential to the U.S.'s long-range peace and safety. But Fairless & Co. view such aid as part of the Mutual Security Program, necessary because the U.S. is involved in "a struggle for its existence." The IDAB sees it both as "a form of preventive medicine" against war and as a duty imposed by the U.S.'s "moral traditions" and "responsibilities of leadership."

The public impression that the U.S. is currently dealing out massive amounts of economic aid is "quite mistaken," the Johnston group says. Most of the $3.8 billion appropriated for this year's Mutual Security Program goes for direct military aid and "defense support." Only $395 million, plus part of the $1.2 billion defense support, can be considered economic aid. A "substantial increase" is called for, says the IDAB.

As noteworthy as the disagreement on aid to neutrals are some striking points of agreement in the Fairless and Johnston reports. Both urge the Administration and Congress to:

P: Separate military and economic aid, in both budgeting and administration, to avoid "misunderstanding at home and suspicions abroad."

P: Put economic-aid planning and appropriations on a long-term basis.

P: Place the "major emphasis" on easy-term repayable loans rather than grants.

P: Promote foreign investment by private U.S. capital to supplement and eventually replace economic aid.

Congress, for its part, is likely to take a dim view of both reports, since both call for programs that imply the spending of more money than the President has asked in his 1958 budget--and this sum ($4.4 billion), Capitol Hill statesmen already have made clear, is more than most Congressmen intend to grant.

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