Canberra, 11 November 1954
It occurs to me that it might be worth considering and discussing whether or not we could not extend the present scope of the Colombo Plan by inviting the public to subscribe to it on say a � for � basis with the Government—over and above the standard contribution by the Government of � X million. I believe that there is a considerable public consciousness of the value of the Colombo Plan—and such contributions would give people an opportunity to express themselves in a practical way.
Another alternative means would be to bring about an arrangement under which a town or city in Australia might ‘adopt’ a town or city in one of the Colombo Plan countries—and send aid in the form of money or appropriate ‘things’. However, this would take a great deal of organising and I do not really think that it is a practical alternative to the above mentioned project of inviting public contributions, which would be matched by the Government.
There might be a ceiling on the Government’s ‘matching’ of public contributions.
You might think about this and let us have a word together about it.1
[NAA:A10302, 1957/170]
1 Casey’s ideas were not pursued by the Department of External Affairs.