Sept. 20.
Japan during the next two months will be the scene of two extremely interesting confer:
the Conference: on Pacifiz ions at Kyoto and the, World Engineering Conference, at Tokyo. To the former, Great Britain, the United States) and Japan have sent formidable gation, as a whole, has not been announced, although it is known that it will be headed by Dr. David Yui. Some members of the American delegation have already arrived in China and Japan where they are studying, conditions at first hand. The importance of this conference may be judged from the fact that two of the chairmen of delegations have recently _become cabinet ministers of their own countries. The Engineering Conference will be attended by larger numbers, representing] more countries. Until he was elected President of the United States, Mr. Hoover was Chairman of the American delegation, Whereas at the Kyoto Conference, there will be round-table! discussions and lectures _on public and social subjects relating to Pacific countries, at the Tokyo conference engineers will discuss their science technically, and commercially, dealing with all its phases throughout the! world.
The presence, at this time, of large numbers of important and responsible leaders of public opinion in their own countries, is most opportune, for these gentlemen cannot but become interested in the parts of the Far East, even if they only come here to discuss shale oil.or the caloric value of rice as a food, Men who arrive at such a station in their professions that they] are acceptable to their contuencies and countries as re-
Dresentatives at such conferences, are usually general in their interests no matter how much they may specialize in single phase of human endeavour, The Kyoto Conference is particularly interesting because two of the principal subjects for discussion will be Manchuria and extraterritoriality. The Chinese delegation will have to be well prepared to meet Mr. Matsuoka, until recently vice-president. of the South Manchuria Railway, and Dr. Nitobe, who is one of Japan's most brilliant speakers. It will be impossible for those present to avoid a discussion of the Chinese Eastern Railway, in fact some of the American delegation are travelling to Japan via Siberia not only to study the situation for themselves, but also to request Soviet Russia to send a delegation to Kyoto.
'The last of these conferences was held at Honolulu two years It is to be presumed that] the procedure followed Honolulu will obtain at Kyoto. Each delegate stands as an in-vidual; he is not taken to represent his country or any or-Any' opinions he! re his own. There is absolute freedom of expr sion, No resolutions are passed and therefore the conference is not reduced to vapidity. But the discussions are published in a large volume. The Honolulu! volume is a veritable encyclopacha of Pacific, particularly, Far Eastern, information and was reviewed at some length in these columns. It may safely be said that Kyoto will produce an even more interesting discussion and volume.
These conferences are_sponsored by the Institute of Pacific Relations at Honolulu, Origin~ ally a YALCA. project, it has now developed into much more than that. The British delegation, for instance, was selected by the Royal Institute of International Affairs and has on its membership, Arnold J. Toynbec, whose Surveys each year have become the universal standard volume on international rela. tions.
Many of those who attend both the Kyoto and Tokyo Con: ences will undoubtedly visit China after the sessions Japan are.over. After the! Honolulu Conference, many of the delegates came to China Japan, among them being Sir Frederick Whyte, These delegates will then have an oppor-_ tunity to make a first-hand study of the major problems at the Kyoto Conference, namely, Manchuria and extraterritoriality. It will be interesting to see. the results of such studies: by men who are trained to grasp world affairs. At Kyoto, they will have had an opportunity to obtain a ground-work for their observations, They will listen to all sides of all questions—they can then come to China to check the facts personally. And as moat of those who are coming to Kyoto write and lecture _professionally, whatever they think, whatever conclusions they reach will have a world-wide audience,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.