Evening star., 1947-12-28
Aid and FOREIGN Policy

In delegating Secretary Marshall to ef-
fectuate the law providing interim emer-
gency aid for France, Italy, Austria and
China, President Truman has instructed
the State Department to carry out its new
responsibility in close collaboration with
all other Federal agencies having voice
In the project. This means that the Sec
retarys authority will be limited to the
extent that he will first have to have the
concurrence of those agencies before taking
certain types of action. The limitation Is
in keeping with the enabling legislation
passed by Congress, and it foreshadows-
In part-the kind Of administrative setup
likely to be created for the longrange
European Recovery Program.
AS far as the ERP is concerned, there
is a considerable body of congressional
opinion opposed to giving the State De-
partment large role in the undertaking.
Recognizing this, but emphasizing at the
same time that the department. cannot
possibly be divorced from the program, the
President has recommended that Congress
establish a special new agency to admin
lister the long-range aid In his judgment,
this agency-to be called the Economic
Cooperation Administration - should be
headed by a single Senate-conflrmed ad-
ministrator appointed by him and directly
responsible to him. Moreover, it should be
relatively small, and it should work with,
rather than supplant, existing agencies,
much as Secretary Marshall has been dl-
rected to do in putting the stopgap project
into effect
But though the administration OF the
long-range ERP thus would be taken
out of the State Departments hands. the
President has made strong case for CIV
ing the department. powerful voice In the
work of the proposed new agency. Thus,
as he declared in his recent message TO
Congress, ct is essential to realize that
this program is much more than COM
mercial operation. It represents major
segment of our foreign policy. Day IN and
day out its operations will affect and be
affected by foreign policy judgments. We
shall be dealing with number OF coun-
tries in which there are complex ana
widely varying economic and political Sit
uations. This program will AFFECT our rela-
tionships with them in matters far beyond
the outline of the program itself. Its ad-
ministration must therefore be fully re-
sponsive to our foreign policy. The admin
istrator must be subject to the direction
of the Secretary of State on decisions and
actions affecting our foreign policy"
In other words, despite some congress
sional feeling to the contrary, the State
Department must figure very Importantly,
very influentially, in the mechanics, pro-
cedures, decisions and overall policies OF
any special organization set up for the
projected four year European Recovery
Program Congress may not 60 along with
the blueprint proposed by the President
but it cannot safely ignore what he has
had to say about the need to give the
Secretary of State a key position in rela-
ton to whatever administrative machinery
is finally agreed upon. Mr.. Truman's views
on this point are hardly open to debate.
self-evidently, our aid and our foreign
policy are two sides of the same coin, and
both must be administered accordingly.