MODERN ASIA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22173, 29 July 1935, Page 10

MODERN ASIA

NEW ZEALAND'S INTEREST GROWING REALISATION An increasing interest in the Far East on the part of the public of NewZealand was observed by Mr. E. C. Carter, secretary-general of the Institute of Pacific Relations, during his tour of the Dominion. Mr. Carter left Auckland by the Monterey on Saturday on his return to the United States. "I found," he said prior to his departure, "that the press generally is very alert to the importance of developing a wider and better informed public opinion on New Zealand's relation to Asia. I also found in university and business circles a large and able minority which realises the necessity of laying a thorough and now basis for New Zealand's study of the Far East. "To the majority Asia still seems distant and off the beaten track, but there are very clear signs of a deepening interest on the part of primary producers, as well as on the part of business men in the cities, librarians and school teachers. "I found that some schools here still had courses that hardly recognised the existence of modern Asia. Others, on the other hand, were keenly alert to the very great significance of what is happening, in its relation to the future of New Zealand." Commenting on tlio emergence of Japan as a factor associated with the Abyssinian position, Mr. Carter said this was an illustration of tho way in which almost every Pacific problem has a world problem and every world problem a Pacific problem. It was helping the people in Britain and Europe to realise that the Pacific and the Atlantic wero equally important in world politics. Referring to the personal side of his tour in tho Dominion, Mr. Carter said he wished to express gratitude for the hospitality and co-oporation ho had received from all whom he had met.