Institute of Pacific Relations

The Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR) was established in 1925 as a private non-partisan forum for the promotion of mutual understanding amongst nations of the Pacific Rim through discussion, research, and education. The IPR's programmes of conferences, research projects, publications, and its quarterly journal "Pacific Affairs" contributed to the interchange of information in the field of Asian Studies. The Institute conducted its affairs through autonomous national councils, each represented on the Pacific Council, the international governing body which directed the IPR's programmes. The International Secretariat, the Pacific Council's administrative organ, was based in Hawaii until it moved to New York in 1933. The American IPR was of particular importance to the organization due in part to its substantial financial contributions; it also carried out its own programmes of research, conferences, and publishing, the latter including Far Eastern Survey. The non-partisan status of the IPR was challenged in the early 1950's when the United States Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws (the McCarran Subcommittee) alleged that it was open to communist influences. In addition, in 1952 former "Pacific Affairs" editor Owen Lattimore was later indicted for perjury before the subcommittee. Although neither charge could be substantiated, the charges resulted in a loss of credibility which seriously impaired the operation of the Institute. Finally, the IPR lost its tax-exempt status as an educational body in 1955 and was forced to wage a five-year battle to have it restored. The final judgement in 1959 affirmed that, contrary to the allegation of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue in 1955, the Institute had not engaged in the dissemination of controversial and partisan propaganda, and had not attempted to influence the policies or opinions of any government or government officials. The various legal battles, despite their favourable outcomes for the IPR, left the Institute completely depleted of funds and it dissolved in 1960. William L. Holland, who served as Secretary-General of the IPR, came to the University of British Columbia to serve as head of the newly-created Department of Asian Studies.