Study of World tensions and development

It was a stirring and stimulating experience to listen in on the Oxford Conference on Tensions in Development. It would have given the cause of more rapid economic development incalculable impetus if the whole free world could have had earphones to hear this colloquium on human partnership. Here were gathered men and women of different races, of divergent backgrounds, but all with similar purposes. There was candor without rancor. There was mutual respect without any shallow pretense of total agreement. There were some fiery speeches but no fiery tempers. There was self-criticism as well as mutual criticism.

The purpose of the Conference was to examine the past in order to improve the future; to analyze what the less developed and the more developed nations have done badly or have done well, in the common enterprise of preparing to do better. Much more needs to be done. The progress already attained shows how possible it is to do more. The free world can take a giant stride forward to turn despair into confidence for millions of people who now know that poverty, hunger, and chronic ill-health are not the necessary
companions of man.