FOREIGN MISSION BOARD MINUTES
September 14, 1971
The Foreign Mission Board held its regular monthly meeting at 3:00 p.m. , September 14,
1971 in the Board's Chapel, Richmond, Virginia with Drew J. Gunnells, Jr., president,
presiding.
PRESENT: State Members: (Alabama) Drew J. Gunnells, Jr., James R. White; (D.C.)
Kenneth E. Thornton; (South Carolina) Robert L. Deneen; (Virginia) M. Mahan Siler, Jr.
Local Members : Robert B. Bass, Mrs. R. B. Carter, Sr., J. Roy Clifford, Paul E. Crandall,
Austin W. Farley, Joseph B. Flowers, V. Allen Gaines, David S. Hammock, Mrs. Clyde V.
Hickerson, John W. Kincheloe, Jr., John W. Patterson, Julian H. Pentecost, Meredith
K. Roberson, Mrs. Ross S. Shearer, Mrs. E. S. Stratton, Mrs. Thomas Whalen, H. I. Willett.
Staff: Baker J. Cauthen, James D. Bclote, Charles W. Bryan, Louis R. Cobbs, Winston
Crawley, Edna Frances Dawkins, William K. Dawson, Samuel A. DeBord, Everett L. Deane,
James G. Edwards, Jesse Fletcher, Franklin T. Fowler, H. Cornell Goerner, W. Eugene
Grubbs, Ward S. Hildreth, Eugene L. Hill, James D. Hughey, Frank K. Means, Floyd H.
North, Norman Price, Sidney C. Reber, Fon H. Scofield, Rogers M. Smith, W. L. Smith,
Richard M. Styles, Joseph B. Underwood, Elbert L. Wright, Elizabeth Minshew.
The meeting was called to order.
Sidney C. Reber, director of the Board's Management Services Division, led the
audience in the opening Hymn: "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty."
Dr. John W. Kincheloe, Jr., local Board member, read a passage of Scripture and led
in prayer.
Minutes of the Board for August 1971, were approved as mailed to Board members.
The President extended a cordial welcome to all who were present, with special recogni¬
tion of two new members of the Board who were attending a meeting in Richmond for
the first time: Dr. Mahan Siler (Virginia), and Dr. James R. White (Alabama).
The President called for REPORTS as follows:
EXECUTIVE SECRETARY - Dr. Baker J. Cauthen
Dr. Cauthen filed the following report:
Since the close of World War II, our country has extended aid toward the rehabilita¬
tion of a war-torn world on a degree without parallel in the world's history. Foreign
aid programs, assistance to underdeveloped countries, and the extension of the Ameri¬
can military shield to European nations and Japan, relieve those countries of vast
outlay of their own resources.
The result has been that economic recovery throughout the world has been phenomenal.
Observers of the international scene have recognized for sometime that readjustment
of policies would be inevitable because of changing circumstances both in the world
and in our own country.
The balance of payment problem and the gold drain highlighted for the American
public something of the seriousness of the situation. More immediate, however,
was a steady rise of inflation so that salary increases for the average American
was soon offset by climbing price spirals. Accelerated import of foreign products
and decline in American exports brought to the attention of the American public the
reality of an unfavorable trade balance.
The dramatic, new economic policies announced by President Nixon in August were
aimed at correcting some of these situations. Inflation, unemployment , the unfavor¬
able economic position abroad were some of the prime targets.
By freezing wages and prices, cutting the dollar loose from the price of gold, and
imposing a ten per cent import duty upon foreign products, dramatic steps were taken
which brought immediate repercussions. These measures have been expected to increase
production, reduce unemployment, stabilize the inflationary situation, and relieve
the speculative disadvantages affecting the American dollar abroad. It has been
anticipated the defacto devaluation of the American dollar would increase the price
of foreign products and decrease the price of American products abroad, thereby
correcting some of the problem of an unfavorable trade balance.
