FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 270, 13 November 1937, Page 8

FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

ROYAL INSTITUTE'S WORK

CONFERENCE IN AUSTRALIA

Behind the announcement that the Royal Institute of International Affairs will be holding a conference in Australia about the middle of next year, and that New Zealand will be represented at this gathering, lies a story of important undertakings by a distinguished body.

The Royal Institute of International Affairs, or Chatham House, as it is frequently called, was founded in 1920, when, after the Peace Conference, an organising committee was set up in London with Lord Robert Cecil in the chair, Mr. Lionel Curtis as secretary, Lord Eustace Percy, Mr. P. J. Noel-Baker, Sir John Tilley, Mr. G. W. Prothero and Mr. Geoffrey Dawson as members, and with Sir Al>e Bailey providing the preliminary expenses. As it finally came into existence, it was devoted to the study of politics, with its membership limited to British subjects and with the rule i that it does not offer any opinion on public policy; its work is primarily fact-finding and observing. Since those days it has grown from two rooms in Horseferry Road, London, to jHissession of freehold property in St. James' Square, with a membership of 2400, affiliated institutes in Canada, Australia, NewZealand, South Africa and India, eleven committees which meet almost continually, and a paid staff of 74 persons. It has received ■many benefactions, was granted £8000 a year for five years by the Rockefeller Foundation, has absorbed the information service on foreign affairs of Mr. J. W. Wheeler-Bennett, and gained its Royal Charter in 1926. Annual Survey Published. To-day the presidents of the Royal Institute of International Affairs are Earl Baldwin, Viscount Cecil, Mr. Lloyd George and Mr. J. R. Clynes, its honorary presidents consist of the Viceroy of India, the Prime Minister of Great Britain and the Prime Ministers of the various Dominions, its council holds Viscount Astor, who is the chairman, Mr. A. V. Alexander, Sir John Power, Sir Norman Angell, Mr. Lionel Curtis, Commander Stephen KjngHall, the Earl of Lytton. Lieut.-General Sir George McDonough, Lord Meston, Mr. Harold Nicholson, Sir Arthur Salter and Professor Sir Alfred Zimmern. L T p to the end of last year the institute had published 10" volumes. The first to be published was the six-volume ''History of _ the Peace Conference," edite<t by Dr. H. W. Temperley, and the next publishing project to be undertaken was the annual "Survey of International Affairs," by Professor Arnold Toynbee, the continued production of which has been financed by a gift of £20,000 from Sir Daniel Stevenson. "It has also begun what may be a new series of volumes with Professor W. K. Hancock's "Survey of British Commonwealth Affairs." In addition it is bringing out the "British Year Book of International Law," as well as various special works which are the result of the efforts of study groups of the institute. These have been on such subjects as "Abyssinia and Italy," "Sanctions" and "Raw Materials and Colonies." New works will he the outcome of the special studies of the various countries of the Empire now being prepared for the Sydney conference. In the past unofficial conferences have been held with representatives of as many as twentv other nations, and as a rc«ult there came into being the International Studies Conference, meetings of which are always preceded bv a long period of preparation on the part of individual scholars, and which has added practical co-operation in research to its other activities. The Studies Conference has devoted about three years to work in preparation for its various meetings on "State Intervention in Economic Life." "Collective Security" and "Peaceful Change." Branch in New Zealand. The first conference on British Commonwealth Relations was held in Toronto in 1033, the second is to be held in Australia in 1938. The New Zealand representative at the first meeting was Mr. W. Downie Stewart, chairman of the group in this Dominion, and to-day president of the New Zealand branch of the institute. In the Dominions, as in Britain, the institute devotes itself to the creation of an informed public opinion on international affairs, and strives to provide a background of well-founded knowledge. As part of its contribution towards this work the New Zealand branch has published a report on "Western Samoa: Mandate or German Colony," which was prepared by a study group of the Dominion organisation.

To-day Chatham House has an annual income of more than £30.000 a year. Tt maintains a library staff which (fives substantial aid to who are working on foreign affairs, it is seeking an endowment of £2T0.000. and it is planning to establish three research professorship on British Commonwealth relations, international law and institutions, and Far Eastern affairs. It recently established another such professorship —a chair on international economics, endowed for seven year* with a <rift of £20.000—and the professor appointed was Dr. A. G. B. Fisher, formerly of Ota go University.