NEW ZEALAND DIPLOMAT?

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 809, 1 November 1929, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND DIPLOMAT?

SCOPE FOR YOUNG MEN PROBLEMS OF THE PACIFI6 That a Pacific civil service should be established, in which the best young men attending the universities in Australia and New Zealand might be trained for diplomatic posts in ths Pacific dependencies, was the plea made by Mr. D. M. Rae, principal ot the Auckland Training College, in a lecture, “Peoples and Problems ot the Pacific,” last evening. The let. ture was given under the auspices ot the Presbyterian Summer School o£ Theology. Mr. Rae mentioned the Indian Civil Service in which, with outstanding courage and skill, young men faced great problems, to surmount them to the satisfaction of the people and to the credit of the country. It was most important that the people of New Zealand and Australia, who could be referred to as the trustees of the Pacific, should understand very defi. nitely the economic, political, racial geographical and historical problems of the Pacific, so that intelligent public opinion could be brought to bear on the vigorous questions to be dealt with in the national policy.

It was unfortunate that the older maps in most of the New Zealand schools did not give a picture of the Pacific as a whole, but. being made by boys aiifl girls in Britain, gave Britain in the centre and the Pacific in two parts. This should be given as a whole, in order that children may know their country’s neighbours and realise its nearness to the major nations of the Pacific. In general, it was most, necessary that New Zealanders should not forget their Imperial time, but they could best serve the Empire by working out satisfactorily their own problems. Mr. Rae dealt with many other points of interest and illustrated his remarks by a very fine map.