EXPERIENCE with United States foreign aid programs has increasingly emphasized the importance of strengthening the administrative institutions of those recipient nations whose traditions in self-government and in conducting extensive public services are relatively short. The assistance extended to such nations necessarily flows through local official channels, and its immediate and long-run usefulness is heavily influenced by the soundness of the administrative organization, the civil service, and the established ways of transacting governmental business. The administration of foreign aid programs naturally has made United States representatives fairly familiar with local administrative problems and resources. In some countries, notably Greece, United States aid groups have been staffed to provide technical assistance in governmental management. In many, however, American knowledge of local administrative problems has been a loose collection of impressions gained in securing customs clearances, in organizing a demonstration program in the field of agricultural extension services, in equipping a hospital, or in accomplishing any other of the diverse objectives embraced within the mutual aid programs. Such contacts, however, do not serve to sort out the basic problems from the peripheral; and while they have acquainted Americans with local officials whose dedication to their duties is profound and whose talents are of the highest order, they have also revealed that these same officials have neither the time nor, in many cases, the perspective to identify the causes of poor administration or to formulate remedies and the order in which they should be applied. Along with the recognition of the paramount importance of administrative improvement in realizing the optimum value from economic and military aid, and of the appropriateness of United States grants of technical assistance in furthering such improvement, t ere has come a growing realization of the need for an orderly approach to this objective. In some cases it has been sought by the addition of a public administration adviser to the aid mission's staff; in others, the initial phase of developing a program for improving public administration in the recipient nation has been entrusted to one man, to a team, or to an institution like Public Administration Service as a short-term undertaking, and the later phases have been carried on by the regular mission staff.