THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 1927. PACIFIC PROBLEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19719, 19 August 1927, Page 10

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 1927. PACIFIC PROBLEMS.

The second conference of the Institute of Pacific Relations, recentlyheld at Honolulu, is the subject of interesting comment in this issue by one of its participants. Although not a member of the New Zealand delegation, this writer, who left a professorship at Canterbury College to undertake official research work for the Institute, knows so much of this Dominion and takes so naturally its point of view that his description of the conference has peculiar value here. This country is bound to he drawn more and more into the international controversies of this ocean forum. Its administrative responsibilities extend far beyond its own shores. They bring i& into touch with foreign interests more closely than was not long ago thought possible. There are indications that the future may increase rather than lighten the burden of these responsibilities; but, whatever may be the nature of such developments;, it is clear that New Zealand must be prepared to take a serious share in the South Pacific's affairs throughout the future. This share will not be limited to administrative control within its own territorial and mandatory bounds: it will entail dealing with international affairs as they increasingly affect this region of domestic control. In a word, New Zealanders will be constrained to think internationally. It is well, therefore, that in the endeavour being made by the Institute to grapple with present and imminent problems of the Pacific, this country has, been given and has accepted a place at the round table, and that news of the doings there is available for its people's guidance. Two years ago a pathfinding assembly met, not merely to consider possible means of future and permanent consultation, but also to face in frank discussion at once some urgent questions on which international misunderstanding had arisen and seemed in danger of growing. The experiment was sufficiently successful to warrant a policy of future conferences, organised on a permanent basis. At Honolulu this year that policy became a programme so definite that the initial work of the Institute may be regarded as complete. One thing above others gives certitude in this: the delegations were representative of almost all the national interests concerned and they were in themselves sufficiently credentialled to stamp the movement with the seal of their respective countries' approval. They did not meet as official spokesmen. The Institute's opportunity for influential service lies in its unofficial character, which admits of a frankness in interchange of information and opinion not readily possible in diplomatic parleys. Nevertheless, the representatives were chosen by organisations which, although voluntary, have the manifest approval of their respective countries. This gives their utterances more than personal weight, while it allows an open-minded hearing to all that other representatives have to say. It has also enabled the Institute as a body to plan on lines of permanency impossible if it were composed of members without affiliation to organised national groups. The element of permanence was decisively imparted, from the point of view of Canadian, Australian and New Zealand delegates, by the presence of a strong group sent from Britain. No such group took part in the first conference, a fact that told against cohesion and authority in the presentation of the Empire's point of view. On this occasion the whole conference profited by the aid of General Sir Frederick Whyte, Mr. Lionel Curtis and their associates. To have brought together for frank consultation 150 delegates representative of practically all the national interests in the Pacific was no mean achievement. What strikes the imagination as even more promising was the thoroughly alert way in which problems of magnitude and difficulty were handled. Affairs in the Orient had naturally first claim to consideration. They are full of explosive perils to international amity. To give China three days of close attention, with prominent Chinese, qualified fully to expound the national aspirations lying deep and wide beneath the present turmoil. describing the upheaval and its implications, was significant of the whole conference. As the focus of thought moved from point to point about this vast maritime area, the meeting-place of many turbulent cross-currents of national ambition, ihe same patient heed was given. For the more thorough review of the outstanding problems considerable preparation had been done, in the gathering and presenting of data in printed form, available for speedy scrutiny. It was found possible thus to get quickly to the core of these problems, and so to husband time and effort in search for their solution. Their complexity, coupled with their changing phases, makes solution elusive ; but it means much that the attempt jp being resolutely made, by research pursued in a capably scientific fashion and by discussion conducted in an unaffectedly fraternal spirit.