The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1929. A NOTABLE CONFERENCE

Hokitika Guardian, 5 November 1929, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1929. A NOTABLE CONFERENCE

A week ago the conference of the Institute ol Pacific Relations opened at Lbkyo, under very favourable auspices. Remembering always that tiie object ol these conferences is to collect information, >to facilitate discussion

iiiid to ensure closer contact and more sympathetic understanding between die nations concerned, we can hardly Joubt that tlie Institute is already serving very valuable purposes, and chat it will help'materially to promote the great cause of world peace. Positive results may take time to develop, nit the atmosphere that the Institute •s striving to create, and the impulses and tendencies that it encourages, may ultimately count for more than pacts or diplomatic negotiations in the iphere of international affairs. One oi die most 1 interesting features of the Conference is necessarily its cosmopolitan character* Five hundred delegates representing a great number of countries and nations, have met together at the Japanese capital, and among them are men who have long since made art international reputation in their own walk of life.. Lord liailsham, more familiar to us as Sir Douglas Hogg, has been for years a conspicuous figure in political and legal circles in England. Professor Shotwell, of Columbia University, is known throughout the world for his literary labours in connection with the Carnegie Peace Endowment. Mr Lionel Curtis, who lias preached so eloquently 'in the cause of a unified British Empire, and Dr Nitolie, one of the ablest interpreters of the Oriental mind to the Western nations, are. among the most eminent of the public men now gathered in council at Tokyo. Hut, says an Auckland paper, it is not so much the personality or the intellectual calibre of the delegates that counts as the purpose and intention with which they have entered upon tneir duties. During the interval since last conference special committees and investigators have Leon collecting information in regard to the more important probems which are to lie considered, and these facts and figures will be available to clear the air of misapprehensions and to facilitate amicable anil intelligent discussion. The mere list of topics included in the agenda - rival national interests in .Manchuria, -China's foreign relations, armaments and population in the Pacific, and others of a similar character

-—should impress even the casual observer with the serious importance' of the conference, and should encourage the belief that the Institute of Pacific Eolations will justify the high hopes of its promoters by helping to avert any future conflict in the Far East or

in the great ocean that washes our own shores.