'A bold experiment': the New Zealand School Dental Service and the Colombo Plan

The Colombo Plan developed out of a conference of Commonwealth foreign ministers in 1950, with its main aim being to provide economic recovery aid to Asian countries affected by the Second World War, thus preventing the increasing influence (mainly from China) of communism within the continent. Little has been published about New Zealand's contribution to the Colombo Plan, and even less is known about the major role the New Zealand School Dental Service (SDS) played in New Zealand's Colombo Plan efforts. This article uses sources such as the New Zealand School Dental Service Gazette and the New Zealand State Dental Nurses' Institute oral histories to detail the SDS's input into the Colombo Plan. Many international students, primarily from Southeast Asian countries, came to New Zealand to train as dental nurses, and New Zealand led the way in establishing school dental services in several countries, including Ceylon (later Sri Lanka), Malaya (later Malaysia), Thailand and Singapore. The success of these Colombo Plan initiatives, ably implemented by the SDS, not only contributed to the provision of fundamental oral health services to these countries but helped cement long-lasting international ties between New Zealand and its Asian neighbours.