PAN PACIFIC UNION.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 213, 8 September 1923, Page 14

PAN PACIFIC UNION.

DIRECTOR ARRIVES BY MARAMA. AX IDEALIST WITH A PUXCH. Thore arrived in Wellington by the Marania from Sydney on Wednesday Mr. Alexander Hume lord. the originator and present director of the Pan-Pacific Union. 'Mr. ford is visiting the Dominion after an absence of 10 years, and is completing a voyage round the Pacific bearing invitations "to the Pan-Pacific Food Conservation Conference, to be held in Honolulu in July. The heads of the union include the loaders of the countries bordering the Pacific, the Right Hon. \V. I , ". Massey being an honorary president. 'Hie first conference was called three years ago, and has since grown to include the publicists and educationists from all Pacific lands, and these are being into permanent bodies for further work in creating better understandings amongst the peoples of the Pacific. Race problems do not trouble Mr. Ford. '' We have lAi.OOO Japanese in Hawaii,"' he said, "and some 20,000 Chinese, and as many Malays, Koreans and Hawaiian.', with about some 20,000 Americans, Australians, and New /Ceahuulcrs. We work in perfect harmony, and there is no race question. It is only. the people you don't know that you mistrust. We have Chinese and Japanese iio.ws in Hawaii who are Sis loyal Americans as any living. The/" i-r* organised into two junior branches: 'I "-' PanPacific Clubs, and have thei< J • Junior Pail-Pacific Chamber of C> • :"e, in which all young men of . ai-iur races work together. We are educating the young men to have a patriotism for the Pacific. Every Saturday in the theatres they are the guests of the union to nee. 31ms and slides of New Zealand and other Pacific lands, and to listen to lectures on these. The union gives hundreds of dollars in prizes annually to the ■ school children for essays on Pacific lands. This idea has spread to Japan, aiid we hope you will adopt it here." Mr. Ford is enthusiastic about the possibilities for good in a general understanding arrived at by the peoples of the Pacific on common grounds, leaving at-ide all special racial problems and religions, and ho* prophesies a great future ; for New Zealand.