A CULTURAL LINK

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 5, 7 January 1944, Page 4

A CULTURAL LINK

The proposal by Dr. Nevins, of the American Office of War Information, that a joint committee should be set up for the promotion of cultural relations between Australia, New Zealand, and the^ United States, and that there should be exchanges of professional men between the three countries, raises interesting possibilities. The three countries are working in close collaboration in the present war and will have to work in close collaboration during the post-war period. Anything that will have the effect of bringing them into harmony is therefore worthy of sympathetic consideration. The Office of War Information, according to Dr. Nevins, wants more Australian and New Zealand University scholars and teachers to go to American universities after the war, and it is hoped that American university men will be invited to Australia and New Zealand. The advantages of such an arrangement are obvious. In order to make it completely successful, it would be necessary to secure the co-operation of such organisations as the Teachers' Institute and the British Medical Association. These organisations, with the support of the universities and of the various Governments where necessary, might consider a scheme of bursaries to enable young students to take advantage of the exchange proposal and also a plan to assist qualified men to gain experience in other countries. What the Office of War Information apparently envisages is a development on a wide scale and reciprocally of the idea that led Cecil Ehodes to found the Rhodes scholarship trust enabling outstanding students from the British Empire, as well as from the United States, to go to Oxford and receive and impart the light of English culture. So far Dr. Nevins has given but a brief outline of what he has in mind, but he has opened up a valuable line of thought which should engage the attention of those concerned in the three countries.