PACIFIC RELATIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 104, 29 October 1931, Page 19

PACIFIC RELATIONS

INSTITUTE CONFERENCE IN CHINA

Information has been received by Sir James Allen, president of tho New Zealand "branch of the Institute of Pacific Relations, with regard to tho conferenco which i& now being held in China. The couferencc was to havo opened in Hangchbw on 20t!i Oetobor. On the development of tension in Manchuria the Japan Council of the institute informed tho Pacific Council that tho Japanese delegates would not bo able to attend the' conference. The Pacific Council, which had already assembled at Shanghai, considered tho position, and eamo unanimously to the conclusion that as more than one hundred delegates fiom all the member countries had already practically completed their long journeys to attend the conference, it should bo proceeded with, though in a modified form. In this decision the China Council entirely concurred. It is explained . in 2. memorandum from the chairman of tho Pacific Council (Mr. Jerome D. Greene) that in coming to this decision the council felt that by taking any other course it I would not be able to assnmo its responsibilities as a permanent international body entrusted with a co-ordiuatcd research programme covering at least half a dozen countries, and extending over a period of years. l Moreover, it was felt that a complete abandonment of the present .conference •would give the erroneous impression that the principal business of the institute was to deal with current political issues. On the contrary, the institute is an international body existing for the study of tho conditions of Pacific peoples with a view to improving their mutnal relations not by methodsof political controversy," but by organising group discussions 'and continuous research. In no t sense ,is the institute a tribunal to-pass judgment on particular issues. It brings together unofti> cially and in a mood of inquiry rather than of conflictl men and women who are interested in the study of these problems. A radio message received by Sir James Allen from Mr. J.>E. Strachan, chairman of the New Zealand delegation, states that after the , opening speeches of Mr. Greene and Dr. Hu Shin there is no danger of the conference collapsing, and the prospects now are good. Dr. Hu is ,one of the foromost thinkers of modern China, and is regarded as primarily responsible for the recent renaissance in' Chinese literature. Ho is one of the three Chinese members of the British Boxer Indemnity Commission.

Sir John Luke is chairman of tho local advisory committee set up under tho Disabled Soldiers Rehabilitation Act, 1930, and not Mr. J. P. Luke, as stated inadvertently in,'/The. Post" a few days ago.