INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19845, 19 July 1926, Page 10

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS.

ROYAL INSTITUTE FOUNDED NEED OF RECENT HISTORY. TRIBUTE BY PRINCE OF WAU3B. (Fbom Odb Own Cohbespondent.} LONDON, June 2. Yesterday afternoon, on the occasion of the formal opening of the new lecture ha'l at Chatham House, St. James's Square, the Prince of Wales made the announcement that the King had commanded that this centre for the study of international affairs should in future be known as “The Royal Institute of International Affairs.” As visitor to the institute, the Prince of Wales, two years ago, accepted on its behalf the gift from Colonel , and Mrs Leonard, of Chatham House, a building which has historic associations with English statesmen. On that occasion the late Prime Minister of New Zealand was present, and the late Lord Cur ion delivered a masterly address. Among recent benefactors the names were mentioned of Sir John Power (who gave £IO,OOO to build the new lecture hall). Sir Daniel Stevenson, Sir Otto Beit, and Sir Abe Bailey (who had given a copy of his of the younger Pitt by Hoppner. Pitt, Earl of Chatham, had resided at this house. The Prince of Wales said that the history we most need for practical politics is the history of the last few years. For public men who have always to work against time, it is most difficult to frame accurate and connected accounts of recent events. This institute is now giving them that history, through the medium of “The History of the Peace Conference of Paris” and the annual volumes of “The Survey of International Affairs.” Facilities for the study, of international problems were now in everincreasing demand throughout the British Commonwealth. The institute was founded to provide a of information in thi* country. A flourishing branch had already been established in Australia, and it wan hoped that members in other parts of the British Commonwealth might also combine to form branch institutes. The institute did not attempt to give advice on policy; it was expressly precluded from doing so by its constitution. It was building up a complete technical library, and was attempting the more essential and difficult task of creating a human library of the information which had not been written. It was endaavourng to keep itself in touch with persons of every point of view who had recent and special information on each country,_ and each problem in the field of international relations, and to secure for its members facilities for free and intimate discussion with such people, so as to enable them to arrive at" conclusions for themselves. Groups of members already existed for the special study of subjects, and until lately they had been organised by the members in their spare time. A point was reached, however, when the system oould not bo extended without an official to devote his whole time to administrative work. He was happy to say that that difficulty had been' overcome, for the moment, by the generosity of Sir Otto Beit in providing funds which had enabled the institute to engage the services of the organiser needed for the purpose. “In these ways,” concluded his Royal Highness, "the British Institute of International Affairs has steadily progressed towards the fulfilment of the objects for which it was founded. Within seven years its members have made it a recognised centre in the British Commonwealth for the study of international problems. The time has come to place it in the same position as other societies dedicated to the study of the more important branches of knowledge. I am therefore authorised to announce than his Majesty the King, on the advice of his Ministers, has commanded that this institute shall henceforward be known as ‘The Royal Institute of International Affairs.’ ” SECRET DIPLOMACY. Sir Austen Chamberlain held most strongly that, for the efficiency of the institute and for the comfort of tne Foreign Office, there, should be a public dissociation of responsibility on the part of either for the doings of the other. The institute waa precluded by its constitution from formulating, as a body, a policy of its own, and all the opinions expressed there were individual. He believed it was essential for the success of the organisation that it should serve publio ends, be under no official control and that the opinions expressed there should not be confused, though they might occasionally agree, with those of his Majesty’s Government. “We, in the Foreign Office, are students of foreign affairs,” he continued, “but we sometimes hesitate to impart all that we know, and we are sometimes precluded from saying all that we think. This institute is in a happier position—(laughter)— but it is a condition of that freedom that it is not to be suspected of being the mouthpiece of the British Government, and that it should not aspire, as an institution, to control British foreign policy.” Thera was no country in the world which was so widely, intimately, and constantly concerned in the foreign affairs and relationships of its neighbours than the British Empire; it was in every continent and on ervery sea, and, far away as they might bo from one another, they were never very far away from any source of trouble, wherever it might arise. Yet it had been true to say that there had notj been the same equally wide public attention devoted to foreign, affairs in this country, and, perhaps, m the dominions, as had been customary on the Continent; and at periods it had been, held that, if our counsels did not prevail, the consequences were on the. other nations and not on the British Empire. He was no friend of secret diplomacy, but that did not mean that he was in favour of public controversy, or of the day-to-day publication of the conversations, dispatches, and cables which passed, though they might be material for the historian or their institute at some future date. But the results must be presented to the people, for the approval of the people, to give strength and national purpose to the foreign policy of any Government. This, natursSly, necessitated an instructed public opinion of the issues and some information of the past out of which the present had grown, without which tho present was inexplicable and the problems of the future insoluble. 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 they did so; and wh.v it was natural that they should differ. Foreign politics would well repay an infinity of care and study, but neither care nor study would be of any use unless they were informed and inspired with sympathy for the nations with whom wc wished to be in agreement.— (Cheers.) Sir James Allen was present.