Some Reflections on Foreign Aid

The Reverend Mr. Spooner, with The Korea Mission of The Orthodox Presbyterian Church at Pusan, Korea, explains, “We are three mis­sionary families connected with a Korean church that has over 500 churches, 6 Bible in­stitutes, a full-fledged seminary, a 40-bed hos­pital, a medical clinic, a Christian high school, several night schools, 20 orphanages, 20 leper colony churches, and the beginnings of a pub­lishing company and a liberal arts college. In all of this we are trustees in only two institu­tions, and we are given the right to speak on the floor of the General Assembly by our Korean brothers, but we have no vote; they do it all…we only help in the pinch. Our mission, as a whole, is seriously considering not handling relief in quantity. We are op­posed to the use of government surplus grains and the like as a proselytizing force in mis­sions. Normal gifts from sister churches are excepted. These are not only good sisterly actions, but Scriptural actions, as well. But much of our giving has become… productive only of resentment and lack of self-reliance.”

This afternoon, by the warm fire, with the kettle boiling merrily, it is hard to believe we are here. Yet the sound of the witchwoman’s drums brings reality to a head. Here in Korea we, as a nation, are not doing the right thing by our friends, the Korean people. Part of the fomenting that is bubbling through the Office of Public Information’s placid effulgences comes from the deep awareness among the people that something is wrong. We are giving them too much. That is, we have not given too wisely. Some of our giving reflects a Pollyanna compulsion to “do good.” Some of our giving springs out of a fear of being friendless in a jealous world. Some of our giving has its source in a genuine desire to share what we have with others who have so much less, like the GI and the Hershey bar he gives to the shoeshine boy at the gate.

But there is unfolding at our very doors the bitterness of a people who are weary of being always on the receiving end, and yet are not aware of the reason for their own bitterness, sometimes. They are “riding the tiger.” They fear to hang on, and they are afraid to drop off. The Tiger is Relief, unrelieved relief… endless bales and bundles and machines and money, and endless queues of long-nosed people to administer it all.