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ay 3: The Need for Socioeconomic Change in Southeast Asia Too often, in the complexities of the Vietnam situation itsel! we forget that since World War Il a greater percentage of th world’s wealth has become concestrated in the hands of a smalle percentage of the earth’s population than ever before. Althoug) there has been some absolute increase in production in the pre dominantly agrarian countries of eastern Asia, the increase i small compared with the rapid growth in population and the risin expectations of an increasingly aware populace, Paul Martix Canada’s Secretary of State for External] Affairs, outlined the gen eral problem in a speech given in Cleveland, Ohio, in Septembe 1964; ; In the decade from 1950 to 1960 the countries of the underdevelopé world were able to increase their production of goods and service from $110 billion to just under $170 billion. ‘This means that at th beginning of the decade as at the end of it, these countries accounte for only three-tenths of all the goods and services produced in th free world as a whole. Over the same period the total population ¢ these countries increased from one thousand million to thirteen hur dred million people. That is a rate almost twice as high as that expe rienced in the advanced countries of the free world. When the growt of production is discounted by the growth of population, we find thi the less developed countries were able to increase their average pe 19 :