From Indonesia to India

The Colombo Plan was a Commonwealth “federation of neighbours” which aimed to counter communism in Asia by providing development aid in the area's poorer countries. This National Film Unit short, directed by future NFU manager David H Fowler, ranges across Asia as it surveys New Zealand’s contributions to the postwar plan: funding hospitals, agriculture and education in Indonesia, Malaya, Sarawak, North Borneo, Pakistan and India. The film also visits Colombo students in their home countries, passing on skills that they learned while studying at NZ universities.

Both were skillled workmen before their trip to New Zealand, and their study in Auckland of new teaching methods is enabling them to pass on that skill to the young men who are their pupils.

– From the narration, on Malayan Colombo Plan students

Key Cast & Crew

John Hutchinson

Camera

David H Fowler

Editor, Writer, Director