Towards economic cooperation in Asia

In the autumn of 1958 the Carnegie Endowment for Inter national Peace commissioned me to write an historical appraisal of the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE). The assignment had its origin in a resolution passed by the Commission at its tenth anniversary session in 1957 requesting the Executive Secretary "to arrange for the early pub lication of a history of the first decade of the Commission." The Secretariat had not proceeded far with the preparation of an of ficial history when, on the suggestion of Mr. W. R. Malinowski of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Af fairs, Mr. C. V. Narasimhan, the then Executive Secretary of ECAFE, decided that a completely independent history of the Com mission would be more useful. The Carnegie Endowment agreed to sponsor the study and the Ford Foundation generously pro vided the financial support that made it possible. The duties of a university teacher and the limitations of an author approaching Asia as a complete stranger have made it a lengthier undertaking than was originally expected. One compensation, perhaps, is that the study now covers the first fifteen years of ECAFE and not simply its first decade. The opinions expressed and conclusions reached are those that seemed valid on the basis of the information avail able up to the middle of 1962.