La Belgique et L'Aide Economique Aux Pays Sous‐Developpes Institut Royal Des Relations Internationales, Brussels, 1959
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1960.tb00181.x |
| Published date | 01 July 1960 |
| Author | Tom Soper |
| Date | 01 July 1960 |
La
Belgique
et
L'
Aide
Economique
Aux
Pays
Sous-Developpes
Institut
Royal
Des
Relations
Internationales,
Brussels,
/959
Review by
TOM
SOPER,
Q,ueen
Elizabeth
House,
Dsford
BELGIAN
economic policy
and
practice
with
regard
to
her
own African posses-
sions
and
other
underdeveloped countries has always been of interest
and
con-
cern
to
the
United
Kingdom,
and
no
more
so
than
now
with
the
prospect
of
independence for
the
Belgian Congo looming steadily nearer!
and
with
new
economic associations developing
through
the
operation
of
the
European
Economic
Community.
The
publication, therefore,
of
La
Belgique
et L'Aide
Economique
aux Pays
Sous-Deoeloppes
under
the
auspices
of
the
Belgian
Institut
Royal
Des Relations Internationales is
particularly
timely
and,
while not
ad-
vancing
any
new analysis of
the
issues, it provides amost valuable
commentary
in
a
compact
form
of
the
main
facets of Belgian experience in
handling
problems of
economic development.
The
book as a whole is
competent
and
useful
but
the title
is somewhat misleading.
One
would expect to see most of
the
pages devoted to
Belgium's
part
in economic
aid
to underdeveloped countries.
In
fact,
the
first
sixty-five pages analyse
the
main
characteristics of underdeveloped countries in
general
and
there
then
follows a series
of
commentaries on
Food
and
Agricultural
Organization,
on Soviet Russia
and
underdeveloped countries, on
the
United
Kingdom
and
the
sterling
area,
and
on
France
and
'la
zonefranc.'
It
is not until a
third
of
the
way
through
the
book
that
attention
in
any
detail isgiven to Belgium
and
the
Belgian Congo.
True
this gives it
the
advantage
of
being in a sense a
comparative
study thus giving
additional
perspective to Belgian methods,
but
from the
point
of view
of
English readers
more
substance on Belgium
and
the
Belgian Congo would
have
been welcome. When, however,
the
main
subject
of
the
book is
reached
some extremely valuable
material
is presented
with
enviable clarity.
There
are
some
thirty
papers by Belgian writers
with
experi-
ence
both
in
the
academic
study
of
underdeveloped countries
and
also
in
the
practical
administration
of them.
The
main
themes
dealt
with
are
'Les
caracteres
du
sous-developpement,' 'Les lecons de quelques cas types de
croissance economique
aux
Xl
Xs et
xxe
siecles,' 'Realisations actuelles
dans
le
domaine
du
developpement economique,' 'Conditions, facteurs et repercus-
sions
du
developpement economique,'
and
'Le
role de la Belgique face
aux
problemes du sous-developpement'.
Throughout
the
book all
the
writers exhibit most praiseworthy directness
and
nowhere is this
more
apparent
and
desirable
than
in Alfred Clayes-Bouiiaert's
analysis
of
the
reasons for Belgian influence
and
power
in Africa, Belgians do
not
seem to suffer from
the
inhibitions associated
with
feelings of guilt
that
have
bedevilled
the
English in
their
dealings
with
colonial problems.
Not
only
that,
the
whole relationship of Belgium to its
main
overseas responsibility -
the
Belgian Congo - has
been
far less complex
than
that
of
the
United
Kingdom
to
her
overseas responsibilities in Africa
and
elsewhere.
If
to some
extent
we
are
bewildered as to
the
road
we should travel it is none
the
less fair to acknowledge
t
This
review
was
written
in
March
1960,
and
the
status
of
some
of
the
territories
men-
tioned
will
most
probably
have
altered
by
the
time
this issue
of
the
Journal
is
published-Ed.
164
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