To the "Paris of Japan' splendrous old Kyoto, still the citadel of Buddhist culture, came three smart sons last week. They were John Davison Rockefeller III; Malcolm MacDonald, scion of Britain's peace-potent, peripatetic Prime Minister; and Lady Nancy Astor's studious William. Came also some 200 other notables to the third biennial session of the Institute of Pacific Relations.
Sons Astor and Rockefeller made themselves obsequiously useful as assistant secretaries respectively to the British and U. S. delegations. Son MacDonald, himself a delegate, hobnobbed with the chief delegates: Jerome Davis Greene of the U. S. (partner, Lee, Higginson & Co.); Baron Hailsham of Britain (recently Lord Chancellor); Dr. Inazo Nitobe of Japan (onetime Under-Secretary of the League of Nations); Dr. David Z. T. Yui of China (confidential spokesman of the Nationalist Government).
These countries and in addition Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and the Philippines were represented by delegations including historians, diplomats, bankers, educators, economists. Present were "observers" for France, Mexico, Soviet Russia. Though purely unofficial the Institute of Pacific Relations is Asia's nearest likeness to Europe's League of Nations.
Rockefeller Dollars. To help found the Institute in 1925. John D. Rockefeller Jr. gave $10,000; Julius Rosenwald $2,500; Lee, Higginson & Co. $1,000; International General Electric Co. $500; Thomas W. Lament $500. These and other donations from countries facing the Pacific Ocean reached a total of $90,000. The first Institute was held in Honolulu. So was the second Institute in 1927. Last week in Kyoto the third Institute met.
Chinese Dynamite. Instituters are fond of the words "dare" and "dynamite." They boast that at their round tables the unofficial delegates rush in where statesmen dare not, grapple with questions too dynamitey for diplomacy. Chinese Chief Delegate David Z. T. Yui took the Instituters at their word last week. At the first session, before formalities were even disposed of, he leaped up and shrilly accused Japan of using murder as an instrument of national policy. This accusation should have had special interest for John D. Rockefeller III. He had dined a few days before with the son of the murdered Chinaman in question.