PACIFIC RELATIONS

Evening Post, Issue 12, 14 July 1936, Page 11

PACIFIC RELATIONS

COMING CONFERENCE

NEW ZEALAND'S PART

TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION

New Zealand will definitely tie represented at the triennial conference of the Institute of Pacific Relations which is.to,take place next August at Yosemite National Park, California.

The leader of 'the New Zealand group will be Dr. H. Belshaw, who is already in 'the United States on a Rockefeller Fellowship. Others who are certain to attend are Miss M. Seaton, hon. secretary of the Wellington Group; Dr. E. N. Merrington, principal of Knox College, Dunedin; and Mr. B. R. Turner, hon. secretary of the New Zealand branch. It is understood also that Mr. T. D. H. Hall, Clerk of the House of Representatives, will be present. Mr. Hall is also in America as a guest' of tfte Carnegie Corpora-

The conference proper will be preceded by meetings of various committees and of the Pacific Council, the governing body of the Institute. Dr. Belshaw has been nominated by Sir James Allen, president of the New Zealand Branch, to act as his alternate on the council. The committees will discuss such matters as finance, research, . publications, programme, educational methods, and it is anticipated that important decisions will be made with regard to future I.P.R. administration and policy. '

Advice has been received that dele-1 gations will.be sent from all member countries, including U.S.A., Canada, Great Britain, Japan, China, U.S.S.R., Philippines, Netherlands and Netherlands Ejast. Indies, France, Honolulu, Australia, and New Zealand. There will also be observers from the League of Nations Secretariat dnd the Inter-j national Labour Office. There is every indication, too, that the personnel of the conference will be particularly strong and'well balanced—politics, administration, education, finance, industry, commerce, journalism, law,. and labour all; being prominently represented. Final particulars of the exact personnel of the various delegations have not yet come to hand. The following councils, however, have' announced the leadership of their respective groups:—Royal Institute of International Affairs (Great Britain), Kt. Hon. A. V. Alexander; China Institute, Dr. Hu Shih"; U.S.S.R. Council, Dr. V. E. Motylev; American Council, Hon. D. Newton Baker; Philippines Council, Justice Jose Abad Santos; New Zealand Council. Dr. H. Belshaw. BROAD QUESTIONS. The discussions of the conference are to deal with the broad question of "aims and results of economic and social policies in Pacific countries," arid it is planned to have this general subject subdivided into five roundtable topics to be discussed consecutively during the eleven or twelve working daye of the conference. The specific topics are as follows:— (1) The United States recovery' programme; (2) Japanese economic expansion in .world markets; (3) economic development and nationality policy of the Soviet Union; (4) economic and social reconstruction in China; (5) the changing balance of political forces in the Pacific, and the possibilities of peaceful adjustment. v The agenda limits itself to only four of the Pacific nations, the reason being that time would not permit the consideration of all countries. Attention will be given, however, to ways in which other countries have been affected by the policies of China, Japan, •the ■nUnion, -and the United ■States. .•■•■■•■■ For each of these'topics a detailed outline of questions has been prepared by the Secretariat and circulated to National Councils. As far as possible, each outline has been drawn up according to a common plan. First, there is an account of what measures have been taken in the four countries and of what results have been achieved. Second, there is to be a consideration of the aims of the policy, or of contradictions in the aims. Third, there is to be an account of the machinery for the execution of the policies. Fourth, there is to be an examination of 'the costs, both financial and social, in the execution of the policies. Finally, each outline has a group of questions designed to show how each of the four nations, in working out.its.own policies, has affected, or been affected by, policies and events in other Pacific countries.

At one or two points some of the outlines deviate from the above pattern. Thus the outline on the Soviet Union has a separate heading on "Nationality Policy," because this is an important factor in the development of the Soviet East, and is the Soviet answer to a problem which other Pacific countries (including New Zealand) also face in their relations towards dependent peoples.

INTERNATIONAL CONTROVERSIES

It is anticipated that rrom these discussions certain specific factors will emerge as potential or actual sources of international controversy— some' peculiarly pertinent to the Pacific as a region, others world-wide in origin, and effect. The discussions in the fifth topic, will accordingly explore the possibility of working out international adjustments which will involve consideration not only of diplomatic machinery and naval treaties, but also of new types of economic adaptations (a) of a general type—for example, guarantees of access to raw materials; (b) of a special type—for example, quota or barter arrangements with Japan in textiles.

Discussions will first deal with specific problems and methods of adjustment with regard to each of the four countries being considered. From this they will proceed to the more general problems raised by these Pacific issues: what changes in diplomatic organisation, and in the relations of Governments to business, would be necessary for the various specific countries if foreign trade were to be managed along the lines of barter, quotas, allotment of markets, etc. And finally, the round-table would take up questions of possible forms of broader international machinery, such as a Pacific regional pact of mutual assistance and non-aggression, a permanent Far-Eastern Conference, frontier commissions, etc., with a view to considering (a) how far any such machinery can be applied on a regional basis; (b) how far it is practicable to expect the Pacific nations to co-operate in its application; (c) how far it would serve as a permanent solution or as a shortterm palliative for the underlying conflicts.

New Zealand's contribution to Conference documentation will take the form of two data papers written respectively by Dr. W. B. Sutch, of the staff of the Minister of Finance, and Dr. H. Belshaw, Professor of Economics at Auckland University College. Dr. Belshaw's work, which is being published in America, is to be entitled

"Recovery Measures in New Zealand: a comparison with the New Deal in the United States," and will refer mainly to the recovery policy of the National Government. Dr. Sutch's work, which is being printed in book form, will relate more particularly to recent structural changes and adaptations In New Zealand's financial, industrial, and agricultural economy, with special reference to Ottawa and after. It is hoped that the latter publication will appear this m,p,nth, anjd Dr. Belshaw,'s should rga^hjl^wlZ^lism^^n^thiy^ery,. •nearcftifciwy 'v. • ' •'" *'•••■•■'•:'^-»■