NEW FRONTIERS IN AFRICA

...Clearly any improvement in this field will proportionately improve our relations with black Africans...

...In abstaining we joined the colonial powers of Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, and France, plus the Union of South Africa...

...In addition to working in these four general areas, the United States should re-examine its original plan to assist the United Arab Republic in building the high Aswan Dam on the Nile...

...yet the colonialism that is real to them is the one they have themselves experienced under Western domination...

...The United States also voted against an African-Asian resolution in the General Assembly's political committee supporting independence for Algeria and recommending a referendum supervised by the United Nations...

...To alter the United Nations' present irresolute course and counter the obvious Russian campaign to render the United Nations impotent, the votes of most of these nations, and those of many South American nations as well, are needed...

...The belief of the early Eisenhower years that Communist penetration could be rolled back or the collapse of Russia brought about by a combination of internal weakness and fear of massive retaliation, has proved illusory...

...The propaganda of the Soviet Union, the excesses of some colonial powers, and other factors have made most Africans believe that complete socialism is the road to both freedom and national wealth...

...Starting from Morocco, we flew east over the Mediterranean to Libya and Egypt...

...But virtually all the land is owned by the crown, the church, or the Ras (the highly placed families), and the farmers are, in effect, merely sharecroppers...

...A conversation with the United Arab Republic's minister of public works left me with the impression that his government feels constrained to exclude British and French, as former colonial powers, from business or political association, but welcomes Americans...

...Now that nation seems to be on the Marxist road: it has one political party and no free speech...

...But for those five weeks we did study Africa and her people intensively...

...Recently I visited several of these and other African nations as a member of a United States Senate inspection mission...

...Many of the new states have a few leaders of experience and ability, but there are almost no replacements in depth...

...The Africans spoke only French, and neither I nor my Senatorial colleagues could talk with them...

...They want the organization to succeed...

...Perhaps he is not...

...He recently returned from an extensive swing through Africa in company with several other Senators and the President's brother, Edward Kennedy...

...Mechanization should also be brought about as fast as economic conditions permit...

...But what African statesmen told us they mean by neutrality is non-involvement in world affairs which they are in no position to influence, plus the absolutely essential opportunity to construct governments and develop productive economies in an atmosphere of freedom...

...In many press conferences we pointed out that Russia has built the only new colonial empire of the Twentieth Century, and asked if our questioners were opposed to that...

...that discrimination in public education and in many employment areas was against the law and on the decline...

...He told us how active the Soviet bloc was in many African states...

...Five weeks is a short time to cover 22,000 miles and to form valid judgments concerning a land so vast and a subject so complex as Africa...

...Any action taken by us entirely or principally in conjunction with only the NATO powers would be rejected by many Africans...

...Our visit to Abidjan coincided with a conference of the presidents of the Ivory Coast, Niger, Upper Volta, and Dahomey, and we were invited to have dinner with these men...

...Many others, however, blame the "world power struggle," not the Russians, for keeping Mauretania out...

...A discouraging example of the result of temporizing with this problem is the condition of Guinea, which we discussed with its President, Sekou Toure, and his cabinet...

...It is also essential that we make the African people and their leaders realize that the new colonialism is that practiced by the Soviet bloc...

...If the solution to the Congo lies in the United Nations, it should be recalled that there are now twenty-five African voices in the United Nations...

...In that atmosphere, neutralism may have seemed an evil...

...Finally, many African statesmen believe that the future of their continent may well depend on whether pan-African organizations can be developed—constitutional federations, leagues, and trade areas...

...Only a few Africans are college educated and most of them are schooled abroad...

...According to his account, when the country voted in 1958 to leave the French Community, the French administrators, in a fit of pique, pulled out abruptly and took everything with them—not only personnel, but records, office equipment, law books, and even the light bulbs from public buildings...

...Since returning, I have been criticized for saying this, on the ground that it lends comfort to the UAR's President Gamal Abdel Nasser, who does not act like our friend...

...Although large amounts of capital will eventually be required in Africa, the immediate need is for modest amounts of aid directed to those areas that will assist the establishment of stable governments...

...and then to Togo, Ghana, Liberia, Guinea, Mali, and Senegal...

...But the colonial period that began in the Sixteenth Century with the division of the world between Spain and Portugal is over, and both we and the Europeans must adapt our actions to that fact...

...Unsuccessful attempts were made to establish a federation of the nine countries of the French Community, all of them now independent...

...sixty per cent of its trade is with Russia and her satellites...

...and commented that the veto of the entrance of nearby Mauretania into the United Nations was evidence of Russia's deliberate policy of stirring unrest...

...Many African countries must, like India, increase food production substantially merely to maintain present living standards...

...That country, which has been the center of our great air and communications operations since the Casablanca landing of World War II, achieved independence from France and Spain in 1956...

...This two billion dollar project has become a symbol to African peoples in their drive for a better life, and we should play our part...

...Africans do resent the apparent orientation of our national policy with that of the colonial powers...

...At Tangier, which is no longer an international city and port, we are obliged to vacate the great Voice of America relay base, one which beams our story to the Iron Curtain countries...

...Yet Africans generally do not feel toward us as they do toward Europeans...

...There is no supply of institutional administrators, or business or professional men to draw on...

...To alter and invigorate our policy toward Africa while maintaining close cooperation with our NATO allies and strengthening our position in Europe and elsewhere is a big order...

...But he insists that he is anti-Communist even though the Russians are busily building the dam...

...This may seem an impressive amount, but it is only one-one hundred sixtieth of our military budget...

...In virtually every country the people we met expressed disappointment over our position in the Algerian struggle, which in Africa is not a local question...

...An Israeli ambassador in Africa stressed this point, saying that Africans have great difficulty adapting to Western capitalism...

...Most of it is in the Point Four category—technical assistance in contrast to military aid...

...The missionaries in Africa have done much for Africans in the medical field but their selfless, often heroic efforts must be augmented by the large-scale assistance that only a large and wealthy nation can provide...

...Every European we met in Africa is convinced that independence for all of Africa is at hand, and most are cooperating in facilitating the transition...

...One member of our party who speaks some French pleased them greatly by crossing the language barrier...

...A brilliant Ford Foundation report on African manpower demonstrates that secondary school teachers are the present imperative need in Africa, just as they were in the rehabilitation of the war-devastated countries after World War II...

...These reverberations have been intensified because the change came with a speed for which no one seems to have been prepared...

...But while the United States equivocated and finally offered only a token loan—partly because of our ties with France—the Soviet Union promptly provided substantial credits, and technicians and administrators who became political advisers...

...We must make them understand clearly the contrast between our society and that of the Soviet bloc...

...One of the great hazards in making the transition to independent African governments is that, because of the lack of civil administrators, political demands may outrun technical competence...

...Seventy-five per cent of native Africans are engaged in subsistence agriculture...

...Despite present difficulties, a long-term aim of American policy should be to encourage actively the formation of free pan-African organizations...

...Premier Charles de Gaulle's efforts to resolve France's African crisis surely signal the beginning of a new era...

...This is the pattern that should be continued and expanded...

...New Frontiers in Africa by SENATOR FRANK E. MOSS The emergence of sixteen new, independent African nations in a single year is shaking to their very foundations both the continent of Africa and much of the free world...

...Within two years, the last of our planes will be gone from our air fields there, and, according to present plans, will be replaced by MIG's and IL 28's given, but not manned, by the Russians...

...And many of them well understand the propaganda and policies of the Soviet Union...

...north to Nigeria...

...To provide medical care to the great bulk of her citizens, Africa must increase her supply of everything in the health field: doctors, nurses, public health officials, hospitals, and training facilities...

...Yet this condition offers the United States a great opportunity—if we would only grasp it...

...Their attitude provides an ideal opportunity to build the United Nations into the effective instrument for peace that we seek...

...But we must have cooperation, particularly United Nations cooperation, for peace in Africa...

...The handsome multiracial university in Salisbury, Rhodesia, operated under the tutelage of the University of London, lacks qualified entrants...

...FRANK E. MOSS, United States Senator from Utah, is a former judge and prosecutor...

...We pointed out that great progress had been made...

...He could not say what they would do with the MIG's, and left the impression that owning them was primarily a matter of prestige...

...One of Africa's greatest needs is education at all levels...

...By ourselves, we can support the independence of the new states and extend much of the needed technical assistance...

...Many Africans, of course, consider association with Western Europe essential...

...Economic aid is particularly needed in four categories: civil administration—the importance of which has been illustrated—agriculture, education, and health...

...And I can not see how we hope to benefit from Egyptian poverty...

...The immediate concern the Administration has shown in African problems is cause for confidence that America will apply the degree of statesmanship needed to bring the new states into the community of freedom...

...It is hard to quarrel with this position—it is precisely that taken by the United States in our formative years following the American revolution...

...A leader of the Moroccan labor movement defended the acceptance of Russian aircraft as a political move designed to muffle the cries of the left and make easier the acceptance of Western assistance without charges of favoring imperialists...

...An informal relationship continues in the Four Entente states—Ivory Coast, Upper Volta, Niger, and Dahomey— which consult frequently...

...Ethiopia, for example, has a great potential for increasing her standard of living through cattle raising, accompanied by a disease eradication program, and the introduction of several new crops, including cotton and sugar cane...

...and that most Americans neither practiced nor approved racial discrimination...

...northeast to Elizabethville and Leopoldville in the Congo...

...south to Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanganyika, and Rhodesia...

...Two—To develop an expanded program of technical assistance for those nations that will use it to develop self-government...

...We came home convinced that while individual attention must be given to many African problems, there are three well-defined elements of policy that the United States should apply generally throughout Africa: One—To support self-determination and self-government for all nations, in the United Nations and elsewhere...

...The explosive political question of division of the land may critically affect future agriculture production...

...As far as possible, each farm has been planned to contain both slope and flat land and to have access to a road...

...The pride of the new nations in their independence, and their determination to assert the prerogatives that go with it, were forcefully brought to our attention in Morocco on our first day in Africa...

...we were questioned in numerous press conferences...

...I returned with the conviction that the fluid situation there is made to order for political and economic penetration by the Soviet bloc, and that we must move quickly and skillfully if we are to avert a severe diplomatic and strategic defeat...

...Having encouraged and aided the African nations to achieve independence, we are obliged to follow through with sound economic aid...

...They said they are...

...There are fewer than 2,000 lawyers to serve the entire continent, and in all of Tanganyika, only one...

...f The lack of knowledge and experience among Africans concerning private business enterprise complicates our relations with them...

...In addition to aid and encouragement for primary and secondary and college programs, we should offer Africans our experience in adult education and that gained in war-time vocational training programs...

...Essential to our identification with African independence is an understanding that neutralism need not be anti-Western or pro-Russian...

...the entire continent demands Algeria's independence...

...For the fiscal year 1961, some $250,000,000 was appropriated for assistance to African nations...

...Improved methods, plus the stimulus of private ownership, could give new life to that nation's economy...

...and we conferred frequently with members of United States missions concerning diplomatic, economic, and social questions...

...The momentous changes occurring in Africa coincide with the assumption of power by newer, younger, more vigorous leadership in Washington...

...Crop rotation and fertilization of the land have begun...

...Africans hear too little about the countries which are unwillingly behind the Iron Curtain, and momentous events like the food production failures in China receive little notice...

...Had local Guineans been trained and prepared to take over the functions of government and the economy, or if the United States had filled the breach without delay, it might now be a truly democratic state...

...America's unmatched power to produce agricultural products should be a powerful instrument in gaining the friendship of African nations, for almost all of them need increases in quantities and varieties of foodstuffs...

...The election to the Presidency of John F. Kennedy has brought hope of new support because of his 1957 Senate speech condemning as unrealistic our unqualified support of France, and urging us to exert more influence in favor of a greater degree of Algerian independence...

...But illiteracy still runs about eighty per cent...

...The British were hopeful that an east African federation could be established prior to the date set for the independence of Uganda, Kenya, and Tanganyika, but this appears unlikely...

...Stripped of its administrative machinery and in desperate need of money and advice, Guinea was willing to accept help from any source...

...Most of the equipment will be left behind...

...As a result, some farmers' annual incomes have risen almost tenfold...

...We talked with opposition politicians, educators, labor officials, newspapermen, and ambassadors of foreign nations, as well as government leaders...

...At Dakar, once slated to be the center of the hoped-for constitutional federation of the French Community, Thiam Dowdon, Senegal's foreign minister and delegate to the United Nations, expressed pleasure in the interest President Kennedy was taking in Africa...

...On the other hand, Africans were dismayed when our then United Nations Ambassador James Wadsworth failed to support a United Nations motion that simply condemned colonialism—on instructions from President Eisenhower, who was responding to an appeal from Britain's Prime Minister Harold Macmillan...

...west along the Ivory Coast...

...Since then, Morocco has asked the United States to evacuate its military bases, as part of its policy to remove all foreign troops from its soil...

...And there are ten times more openings for Tanganyi-kan students at universities and graduate schools than there are students prepared to enter...

...Senegal is an example, he said, of a colony that was never "oppressed," and one that wishes to retain close ties with the French Community...

...But the aging Emperor Haile Selassie, who rules the country as a feudal kingdom, seems unable or unwilling to effect genuine land reform...

...particularly is this the case on a first trip, as this one was for all three of the Senators in our mission...

...1 It is rather generally agreed that our information efforts must be expanded and improved around the world, especially in Africa...

...1 We were also conscious of how few Americans speak foreign languages and what a diplomatic handicap this can be...

...But it is to our advantage that the nations of Africa are proud of their membership in the United Nations and of the status in the world community which that membership gives them...

...The crisis in the Congo illustrates the terrible dilemma that faces the United States if the United Nations fails—that of witnessing a widespread Russian takeover or of being drawn into fighting, almost alone, the wrong war in the wrong place...

...The greatest educational bottleneck is secondary schools—teachers and facilities...

...The Great White Fleet proposed in a bill now before the United States Senate could help by rushing disaster aid, and, between emergencies, providing training in public health techniques...

...In Kenya, in the wake of the Mau Mau terror, the British introduced a program of land reform which promises a dramatic improvement in the welfare of the people...

...Here are a few additional reflections on our findings: f The question of racial discrimination in the United States was raised time and again at our news conferences...

...Many farmers who previously owned several small non-contiguous plots have had their holdings consolidated and have been given the benefit of on-the-farm training...

...Much government planning and government enterprise will undoubtedly be needed in Africa, but she could benefit enormously from the stimulus of individual enterprise as well...

...Land reform, improved land management, fertilization, irrigation, and crop rotation are all needed, as are agricultural college and extension facilities...

...The African nations are striving to increase educational opportunities for their people and gladly devote a high proportion of their budgets to this purpose...

...Three—To strengthen the hand of the United Nations to enable that organization to minimize seizures of power and keep local struggles from spreading into general war...

...After the referendum reference was amended out, the United States abstained in the final vote, which passed, 89-0...

...We can avoid this dilemma only through multi-lateral United Nations action...