NEW BOOKS

Evening Star, Issue 21240, 22 October 1932, Page 19

NEW BOOKS

THE PACIFIC ‘ Problems of the Pacific, 1931: Proceedings of the Fourth Conference of tlie Institute of Pacific Relations, Hangchow and Shanghai.’ University of Chicago Press. The work of the Institute of Pacific Relations is based upon the conviction that it is impossible to devise and administer adequate policies for the harmonious development of the Pacific area without careful and unbiased analysis of the elemental facts of the situation. It is party because this belief is still far from universal and policies still depend far too much on the impulsive and short-sighted reactions of people who are ignorant of or insensitive to the remoter consequences of day-to-day events that the world as a whole to-day presents such a chaotic and depressing picture. Nevertheless, though events seem often to move dangerously fast, ahead of the slow deliberations of scientific investigators, there is no doubt that no ultimate equilibrium is possible except upon the foundations laid by such inquiries. The detailed analysis of elemental facts is necessary, but even this is not without its dangers. The complexity of human life in the Pacific is so great, the merely dramatic interest of observing great conflicting interests and the wide sweep of fundamental forces so enthralling that the detached student must often remind himself that the interest of his study is not the same as that which leads others to study the ancient civilisations of Egypt or Babylon, but at the same time has a much more urgent practical end. For either the student or the practical man, anxious to prepare himself for making sound judgments about economic and political relations in the Pacific, the proceedings of the fourth conference of the Institute of Pacific Relations, held last year in Shanghai, and now available in a single 500-page volume, include a wide variety of useful material, and at the same time constantly remind him that he is not engaged in a study of museum specimens, but of urgent practical problems, the background of which is constantly changing, and the solution of which depends in the last resort upon the understanding and goodwill of himself and bis follow human beings. An efficient technique in conference preparation has now been evolved by the institute stall’, and the outstanding topics selected for conference discussions are first subjected to a systematic process of , preliminary study ami analysis, on which depends the maximum fruitfulness of the actual conference proceedings. The subjects discussed last year included trade relations in the Pacific, the silver question, the diplomatic machinery of the Pacific, dependencies and native peoples, and China’s economic development. 'flic conference discussions on each of the nrohlcms on the agenda are conveniently introduced by the editors of the proceedings in a brief note, and a reprint of the more important documents which had been submitted beforehand by various national groups. The conference discussions are then summarised with a view to bringing into clear relief both divergent points of view and the questions upon which further investigation seemed necessary before confident conclusions could bo drawn. The urgent need for well-informed opinion in regard to Pacific questions has in no way diminished since the conference was held, and its proceedings are a valuable contribution to the task of meeting this need.