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MAN IN THE  MODERN WORLD
various ways. Colonial profits and revenues will only go a short
distance. Loans and grants-in-aid, both from the separate colonial
powers and from the international Colonial Commission, will be of
importance. And private finance, largely guided into desirable
channels through some international investment board, can still play
a major role. Already the British and American authorities are con-
sidering ways and means for setting up international finance agencies,
among whose functions would be the promotion of development in
backward areas.
For the actual job of carrying out development, special agencies
and methods will be needed. Existing colonial governments can con-
tinue doing much valuable work. Then we may envisage the setting
up of more organizations of the type of the Empire Cotton-Growing
Corporation in the Sudan, where co-operatives of native producers
are organized with the aid both of private finance and government
aid. We shall require a careful organization of marketing agencies
for all products which are regulated by international schemes of
commodity control. And we shall certainly need special long-term
planning and development agencies of rather new type.
One valuable suggestion, which will apply to those numerous
tropical regions where all-round development is needed for a longish
period before commercial profit can be expected, is to set up agencies
rather of the type of the TVA, but adapted to regions of greater
backwardness, and under some international control. Their function
would be social as much as economic, and would involve the trans-
formation of every aspect of life—a task which obviously requires
long-term planning as well as large-scale capital investment. We
may call such bodies Regional Development Agencies.
For other regions where a profitable external market is already, or
will shortly be, available, a different type of body is needed, which
we may christen the International Public Concern. Their share-
holders should be given a minimum rate of return on their investment
by international guarantee. In return for this a maximum rate
should also be laid down; all profits in excess of this must be returned
to the area, and a certain proportion must be set aside for social,
educational, and health improvement (somewhat as with the Miners'
Welfare Fund in Britain). This compulsory ploughing-back of any
excess profits is essential if the development of the area is to proceed
at a reasonable rate: at present there is an undue and illegitimate
drain of wealth from the backward to the advanced nations. Finally,
as such concerns are bound to exert a dominant influence on all
aspects of native life, it is essential that they should operate under
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