EAST MEETS WEST

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 124, 28 May 1928, Page 10

EAST MEETS WEST

DIP INTO FUTURE IMPORTANCE OF PACIFIC A UNITED WORLD That the meeting of East and West in-tho Pacific would lead to'an amalgamation between Eastern and Western people and eventually result in a united world was a view expressed by Professor J. Macmillan Brown in the course of an address on "The Problems of the Pacific," given in Christchurch recently. The professor said that the title of his address might "suggest that he was going to make predictions as to the future. Predictions, however, were dangerous. Events, that at the time appeared comparatively unimportant, often completely altered the trend of the world's affairs. For instance, if in the seventeenth century, Japan had not expelled the Jesuits and shut up her country entirely to. Europeans, she might have acquired islands in the Pacific, and, if this had happened, New Zealand to-day might not have been a British possession. The population of Japan at present was growing at a great rate. She wanted somewhere to send her surplus population. She sent them to America, South America, and Australia, but she had no territory of her own to which to send them. Japan was the closest analogy to Britain to bo found in tlie Pacific. She was an island nation, close to a great continent, and she naturally bred a race of sailors. There were two other islands in the Pacific similarly situated—New Zealand and Vancouver. He did not think that New Zealand would ever grow as powerful as Japan, but she would become a great nation. For an island nation to become really powerful, she must have a great continent close at hand as a market. New Zealand was too far off her continent of Australia. A FUTUEE WAU? Japan, the professor continued, was easily organised, and, with her devotion to education, she was destined to take a.high place among the nations of the Pacific. Japan needed Manchuria and North China to supply her with food and the raw materials essential to her industries. Japan would always claim that Mancliuvia was her own, but this claim was disputed by China and Russia. China would claim Manchuria on the ground that tens of thousands of her people lived thcro. The Japanese had not taken kindly to living in Manchuria. Russia would claim Manchuria because she still owned tho. principal railway of the country. He quite anticipated that, a good while on in the present ecntnry, tliero would be a triangular conflict between the three nations to decide which should possess Manchuria, and he also was pretty certain that Japan would win. This conflict was impossible at present beca-yse the treasuries' of the three nations were depleted. Tho conflict could not come for at least three generations. Japan was an industrial nation, and" for this reason she required Manchuria and North China. China had developed her industries to a certain extent, but one thing that was essential to industries was capital. The Bolsheviks were realising this. The Chinese were not honest in business, and for this reason the outside world was not "willing to lend them capital.. the Japanese had realised the value of business honesty. The greatest problem of the Pacific, however, was that for the first time in history, East and West were meeting face to face. What was to come of this meeting? Was there going to be an amalgamation between East? and West? That was a problem of tlie future, and would not bo solved until the Chinese trouble was solved and the Manchuriau question was • settled. Then, he predicted that there would be a great commerce across tho Pacific Ocean, and that this ocean would be the arena of the hybridising of two of tho most progressive peoples that tho world had ever seen and were now for tho first time facing each other. THE COMING RELIGION. Delving further into the future, the speaker said that in his opinion the time would come when all the nations of the world would be united. All the barriers that at present interfered with free intercourse between the nations would be removed. English, he predicted, would be the most spoken language. It would be the Esperanto of the future. Eugenics would play a big part in the united world of the future. This would not be brought about by legislation, whjch so far had signally failed in this respect, but because men would feel that it was due to mankind and their fellows not to pass on to posterity disabilities from which they themselves suffered. It would be a matter of religion. ' ■ What .would be the religion of the future? To-day the religion of the AVcst was largely based on the supernatural. In the East religion was mainly a lofty code of ethics. He was confident that in the future there would bo a religion better than anything we had nqw. It would be a religion regulating tho emotions and morals of men, and leaving their minds free from what was not understood. Reason would be the guiding influence in tho religion of the perfect mpn. It would take tens of thousands of years to bring this about, but that was nothing considering that tho earth was two hundred million years -old. Mankind was only at tho beginning of its history, instead of at the end. '