The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 1927. PACIFIC RELATIONS.

Hokitika Guardian, 26 August 1927, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 1927. PACIFIC RELATIONS.

The Institute of Pacific Relations considers an exchange deserves great credit for its public-spirited attempts to throw light- on the dark phases of the Far Eastern problem. No one can possibly take exception to the systematic collection of material bearing on international relation; in that part of the world, nor to the propagation of pacifist ideas and amicable sentiments anion;; the nations chiefly concerned. There are, however, certain possible contingencies that ought- to lie kept in view bv those responsible for this organisation and its periodic meetings, and one is the risk ot taking themselves too seriously. The intentions or the personal qualifications of the delegates who met at Honolulu last month are not questioned. But they probably realise that even if they are extremely well-informed o*n all such questions, and both eminent and influential in public affairs, they can hardly expect the diplomats and statesmen who still, for good or evil, regulate world affairs to accept their opinions and recommendations at their face value. But no doubt the work of the Institute will help to shape public opinion on these grave questions, and will thus indirectly affect the views of diplomats and Governments. The other possibility to which reference has been made is the danger that in their

desire to promote and advocate peace such conferences may ignore too completely the possibilities of war. Pro-fes.-ior H Duncan Hall, one of our nble-t authorities on the coustiiution 01 the Empire, warned the delegates .solemnly that they were deluding themselves in assuming, as many of them .seemed to assume, that war in the Pacific is incredible and unthinkable. AVitli those who supported Professor Sliotwoll’s scheme for an agreement that would “abolish war in the Pacific,” the wish was doubtless father to the thought. The one great problem of emigration—which Americans and Australians and Now Zealanders regard as a question of domestic policy, while the Japanese insist that it is a matter of international regulationmay contain in it. the germs of many wars, and wo gain nothing by shutting our eyes to such eventualities. One remarkable contribution to the discussions at Honolulu was made by Mr T. Koo, a leading representative of the V.-M.C.A. in China. He stated with intieh force certain serious objections to the incursion of missionaries into his country. Their mission work, said Mr Koo. is mixed with Politics; they do not id ways practise what they preach; the Communists, who are now numerous in China, tire hostile to all religions; and the enlightened Chinese Nationalists consider Christianity as taught by the missionaries “a form of superstition and oppression.” What strikes one as most noticeable about this criticism is its rather bitter and acrimonious lone. No doubt there is ground for the opinion freely expressed at the Conference that the modern 'missionary in China is too dogmatic, and that he ought to ho bettor grounded in the history and the ideals of the Chinese people. No doubt also the persecution to which missionaries are now being subjected in China is largely the outcome of the causes suggested' by Mr Koo. Rut one cannot help feeling that this distinguished Y.M.C.A. worker also takes what is largely a political view of the situation in the Far Fast. Western prestige, he writes, has disappeared in the Fast ever since the Groat Man, and so long its futile altemnls are made to bolster it up “there will be no peace.” Those words are well worth reflecting, upon.