In the field of foreign aid, giving provokes grumbling. The U.S. has learned this lesson through years of political argument at home and criticism abroad. Now West Germany is discovering the Law of Painful Generosity.
Prodded by the U.S., Bonn agreed to carry more of the West's underdeveloped-areas burden about a year ago, when it set up a special aid ministry under a former private-business consultant, Walter Scheel. Since then, the West German government has provided or promised $1,425.000,000 in assistance funds to 45 countries, mostly in Asia and Africa, but also in Latin America. Most of Bonn's loans are in the...