Remarks to Members of the Commerce Committee for the Alliance for Progress.

Mr. Grace, gentlemen:

I want to express my thanks to all of you for being willing to take part in this advisory committee of the Alliance for Progress. I do not regard this as a ceremonial function on your part. It is impossible for us, of course, to supply by public means--governmental means--the funds which are necessary for the development of Latin America. They must come through private sources, and private sources and private investment will be under increasing political pressure in all these countries as the political tensions mount in the very vital areas of Latin America.

So what we would like from you is advice on how we can make the Alliance for Progress more successful, how our programs and expenditures of public funds based on your experience in Latin America can be carried out most efficiently, and also how we can concert the private and the public efforts.

During the recent conversations with the president of Brazil, we had a talk on a matter which I think typifies the kind of interrelationship which must exist between business and government. And I am referring to the proposals which have been made for the purchase of public utilities in Brazil, with an agreement from the American companies that the funds received from this purchase will be placed in manufacturing industries in Brazil.

In nearly every country of Latin America these kinds of questions arise, as to where private funds should be placed, what kind of guarantees the United States Government can give those funds in order to encourage them, what kind of guarantees and atmosphere we should insist upon, and try to insist upon from the local countries, in order to maintain a flow of private investment.

If local capital and American capital dry up, then all our hopes of a decade of development in Latin America will be gone. We play, in our governmental assistance-public assistance--necessarily a supplemental role, and we want to make it most efficient. And we want to make sure that the private effort there is most efficient and most productive to you--those who take the risk-and to the local communities and to the interests of our country. So I think this is a very important work.

I know that it is perhaps easier to stand aside and criticize actions, but I think if you will advise and assist us, I think we can do a better job. And in addition, we provide a much better atmosphere of the governmental and private together who, in the final analysis, really, can bring about the same results even though they may originate in a different motivation at the beginning.

So I want to thank you and I hope that you will find it possible to take an active part. The very distinguished head of the AID Agency, Ambassador Moscoso, and the whole AID Agency, recognize that the future of assistance really stands or falls on the Alliance for Progress. This is a very key area. It's bound, I know, to bring disappointments. It's very hard to accomplish what everyone hopes. These results are not immediate, but if you will work with us, if we can work out governmental programs which can in the sixties do the same kind of imaginative work which the Export-Import Bank has done since its inception, which represents a partnership, I think that you will benefit, and I know the country will, and the countries of Latin America.

We want to thank you, and I hope you will find it possible to give as much time to it as you can, to register as many disagreements as you think necessary, and to make this not merely one of these general committees which occasionally meets, but a very active body in which you will feel that your participation is regarded as essential.

So I want to thank you all.