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Title
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Letter to H.B. Lary
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Date
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1955
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Date in document
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yes
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Formulas or calculations
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no
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Inventory number
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NL-RtEUR_TBCOR01_024L004
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8306
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Storage location
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Specifiek Magazijn
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Filename
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CDM8306_NL-RtEUR_TBCOR01_024L004.pdf
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Provenance
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Jan Tinbergen
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Accrual Method
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donation
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Rights
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Revised transcript
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en
June 6, 1955
Mr. Hal B. Lary, Director,
Research and Planning Division
ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR EUROPE
Palais des Nations
Geneve
Dear Lary,
Thank you for yours of 27 May, ECE/HBL/mm. I fully understand your standpoint. What I had in mind is that the assistance to be given to the planners of the countries concerned requires at least two different types of knowledge: the more technical knowledge necessary to judge separate projects in the field of agriculture, transportation, manufacturing industries, and the more general economic and statistical background needed to judge the general cohesion of the plan, to test the assumptions on demand, taxes, national accounting methods, etc. The first type of work can best be done by technical specialists in each of the fields concerned whereas the second type is more particularly my own. This is why in the Mexican mission of the Dutch organization NEDECO in which I participated and in e.g. Bank missions so far both types of people were represented. After an introductory discussion, by the whole group, of the programme as a whole, detailed scrutiny of its parts has to take place, to be executed by the technical experts. After that second stage, a third will be useful in which again the general expert has to be the co-ordinating element. This is why I thought I should be available a week or so in the beginning, then could be absent a few weeks and again should be with the group for one or two weeks. It is difficult to mention names since I could not consult NEDECO but my colleagues in the NEDECO mission were agricultural, transportation and manufacturing experts, most of them engineers with an economic background. We had Mr. Posthuma, of the Rotterdam Port Authority, Mr. Joosten, former railway engineer in Indonesia, etc.
I hope these few indications will be of some help to you.
With best personal regards,
Yours very sincerely,
J. Tinbergen
