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ment. The initial preparation of such plans is best done in the Colonial Dependencies, but they will require to be carefully reviewed by a central organisation able to take the widest point of view before they are accepted as the framework of future development. Many Colonial Governments have at my request already prepared comprehensive plans covering all the develop- ment work which they would propose to undertake during the next ten years. I ask that those which have not completed such planning should do so as soon as possible and that those which have already submitted plans should consider whether any revision of them is necessary in the light of this despatch and the allocations now made.
10. I have included in the memorandum attached to this despatch (Enclo- sure 3) various detailed suggestions on the preparation of comprehensive plans, together with a number of other points of detail which will arise in the administration of money under the new Act. The essence of the procedure I propose is that each Colonial Dependency should first draw up a plan covering all the objects of development and welfare expenditure which are thought desirable, without attempting in the initial stage to limit this to the exact amount of the resources estimated to be available. It is essential if sufficiently comprehensive planning is to be achieved that on the one side there should be taken into account all the resources likely to be available, whether from Colonial Development and Welfare assistance, from local revenue sources or public loans or from any other source, and on the other that the plans should include all likely major developments on the expenditure side, including important increases in the recurrent expenditure of Depart- ments dealing with public health, agricultural and other developmental services as well as strictly capital expenditure. This comprehensive plan should, however, be realistic and the proposals included in it should be graded in a few broad priority categories, so that whatever amount of moncy is in fact available can be devoted to those developments which are regarded as of the highest importance. This procedure is necessary, as the resources from which development may be financed over the ten-year period, other than the Colonial Development and Welfare allocation, cannot of necessity, be precisely estimated in advance. Colonial Governments should, however, couple with their comprehensive plans an approximate estimate of the total resources which they do expect to be able to devote to development, including, of course, the present allocation from Imperial funds under the Colonial Development and Welfare Act.
II. In the formulation of estimates of local resources there is one factor that should be specially borne in mind. The contribution to be made from the Imperial Exchequer is a real burden on the United Kingdom taxpayer, to be borne at a time when the resources of the United Kingdom, external as well as internal, have been heavily strained. All parts of the Empire have shared in the sacrifices and burdens of war, but the financial burdens borne by the United Kingdom have been very much greater than those which have fallen on any other part of the Commonwealth. They have been greater absolutely, and they have entailed a most serious worsening of the external financial position of the United Kingdom quite unparalleled in any other part of the Commonwealth or in any Allied country. In spite of the manifold difficulties confronting the United Kingdom on all sides, the additional effort necessary to provide the funds set aside under the Colonial Development and Welfare Act will be gladly made because of the desire to see Colonial development and welfare advanced, but it is equally expected that the Colonial Dependencies will play their part in the joint effort, as it is indeed in their own interests to do. Rates of taxation vary considerably from one Colonial territory to another, and it is important that direct taxation borne mainly
by the richer members of the cominunity should be reviewed, if this has not been done recently, so as to ensure that local revenues are making an adequate and fair contribution towards the cost of the development and advancement of the territory.
12. A proper balance between different objects of development and welfare, already referred to in paragraph 8 above, is fundamental to a wise develop- ment policy. The dual title of the Colonial Development and Welfare Act clearly indicates its purpose, namely, parallel progress in the development of the resources of the Colonial Dependencies and in the improvement of the welfare of their people. The first object is the more fundamental since without economic development it will be impossible for the Dependencies to maintain from their own resources the improved standards which are desired for them; but in the meantime the social services must be improved and in many cases this improvement in the social services will contribute indirectly to economic development and general advancement. I emphasise the fundamental character of economic development, because the possibilities of expansion in the social services are commonly immediately apparent and, as a matter of administrative organisation, are directly the concern of particular depart- ments, while economic development is at once a more general responsibility and a sphere in which the desirable course is less easy to determine. The relative roles played by the two parts of a general programme will vary from Dependency to Dependency, but the most careful attention should everywhere be given to the improvement of the productive efficiency of the Dependency's resources as a whole, both human and material.
13. As already indicated, when plans have been drawn up locally on the above lines it will be important that they should be carefully reviewed at the centre. I am considering what strengthening of the machinery of the Colonial Office will be necessary in order to ensure that such a review is carried out effectively but expeditiously and that the best advice will be available. I shall give special consideration to the best means of securing the most competent review of possibilities of economic development and the means of promoting it. It may be necessary for me to suggest how machinery in the territories can be strengthened.
14. In the preparation of plans, and indeed in all work connected with them, it is of the first importance that the interest of the inhabitants of the Dependency should be aroused and their opinion consulted and their co- operation secured wherever possible. A great part of the value of the assistance given by the new Act will be lost if the developments financed Government and or assisted by it are regarded merely as an activity of not as the concern of the ordinary people of the country. The establishment of Development Committees containing unofficial representation is one obvious means of ensuring due public participation, and such Committees have I know already been formed in many of the Colonial Dependencies.
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15. The need to prepare a comprehensive plan for each Dependency does not, of course, entail the holding up of all development while plans are being prepared or revised. On the contrary, the passing of the new Act is clearly the signal for an intensification of effort. Having regard, however, to the schemes already initiated under the 1940 Act and to the difficulty which must still for some little time longer exist in obtaining the staff and materials needed to carry out large programmes of work, I feel sure that progress in the long run with development programmes will be hastened and not delayed if the main immediate emphasis is on the completion of general plans for each Dependency rather than the submission of unrelated proposals for the approval of individual new schemes. Nothing that I have said, however, should prevent
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