INTERNATIONAL STUDIES.

Evening Star, Issue 19298, 10 July 1926, Page 6

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES.

Honor was done to an organisation promising exceptional usefulness when it was announced a few weeks ago that the British Institute of International Affairs would bo known henceforward as “ the Royal Institute of International Affairs.” There have been times when the British nation has prided itself on its insularity. Tho Avar showed that, for purposes of defence, Britain is no longer an Island. It showed also that tho time had passed when it could afford to bo so politically. Tho world is smaller than it was a century ago. It will not bo possible for any nation in the iutiire to live to itself alone. In a real sense we must all be internationalists, whether we like it or not. That new conception of world relations was declared by tho foundation of this particular institute in the year after the wax ended. Tho strength of the conviction animating its establishment has been shown in the circumstances of its creation and of its subsequent growth. Formed for the study of international history, as its developments year by year unfold themselves, its home of Chatham House, in London, was provided by two Canadians. A South African magnate, Sir Abo Bailey, had found the funds earlier for its initial organisation. English donors havo now supplied the money for the building of a lecture hall and for the endowment of a professorship of international history in connection with tho University of London. A complete technical library also is being built up. Tho first work which was performed by tho new institute was the preparation of an exhaustive, studiously impartial ‘History of the Pence Conference of Paris,’ so that those who wished to criticise tho work of the Versailles Conference should have the best possible knowledge of what was done there and of the reasons why decisions, full of promise or danger for the future of the world, took the shape they did. Now the institute is publishing annual volumes of a ‘ Survey of International Affairs,’ which should bo invaluable to statesmen and thinkers.

In announcing the Royal favor lo tho new institute and in opening its new lecture hall, the Prince of Wales emphasised that there had been nothing like it before. In the London Directory for 1919 could be found recognised or chartered societies devoted to tho study of nearly every important subject except international politics. The institute has been formed to fill that gap. The history that is most important for practical politics, it was pointed out by the Prince, is the history of the last few years. Accurate and up-to-date information on international affairs is as important to-day to the leaders of trade as it is to tho politician. Many of the great business firms at figure now employ expert ad-

viscrs, who give their whole time to such studies. But these experts can produce better results in less time and at less cost if to some extent they can pool resources in one co-operative organisation, and if there is one centre where they can all come into touch with each other. The institute will provide that need for Groat Britain; a .flourishing branch of it has been formed already in Australia to perform a similar purpose, and it is hoped that in time members in other parte of the British Empire will combine to form branch institutes. The importance of the new organisation was no loss convincingly set forth in a speech of the Foreign Minister. As a democratic nation (and, he might have added, one tliat is still advancing in democracy) Sir Austen Chamberlain pointed out that Great Britain could not afford to allow foreign affairs to be tho mystery of the few instead of the understanding of the many. It was essential, for the successful conduct of international relations, to try to understand the outlook of the other nations, and to find out not merely where they differed from us, but why tlioy did so, and why it was natural that they should differ. Foreign politics would well repay an infinity of care and study, but neither care nor study would bo of any use unless they were informed and inspired with sympathy for the nations with whom Great Britain wished to be in agreement.