Representatives of 17 nations gathered in Singapore's blue-columned Victoria Hall last week to take stock of the Colombo Plan's first five years and to chart a course for the next six.
Started as a mutual self-help scheme among British Commonwealth nations, the Colombo Plan has since expanded to nearly all free Asian nations, produced in five years an interchange of $2 billion worth of economic development. Donor nations, e.g., Britain, Canada, Australia, have poured in capital and know-how, while recipient nations have exchanged such experts and such know-how as they have, e.g., India has sent four aeronautical engineers to Indonesia; Singapore...