318 J.-A. PEMBERTON
‘study meeting,’ as it was termed, was held instead. The anticipated
absence of the Japanese at this gathering also created a serious constitu-
tional problem for the International Secretariat and the Pacific Council.
Under the original constitution of the IPR, certain national councils—
including the Japanese Council—had veto power over decisions of the
Pacific Council. It was possible therefore, that the Japanese might be in
position to subsequently veto any decisions taken. This consideration,
thus, was also a factor in the decision to call the Virginia Beach gathering
a study meeting rather than conference and, not incidentally, to forego a
formal convocation of the Pacific Council.^273The original plan had been that the study meeting would be hosted by
the Canadian Council of the IPR and would take place in Victoria in
British Columbia. However, the outbreak of war in Europe caused the
organisers to rethink this plan. On September 5, by which time repre-
sentatives of three or four distant councils had already arrived in or
were en route to North America, Carter informed the secretaries of the
IPR’s national councils that Jessup, who had been elected chair of the
Pacific Council in 1939, had consulted with Edgar Tarr, the chair of the
Canadian Council, and had ‘discovered’ that the leaders of the Canadian
Council did ‘not feel the outbreak of war...[would]...make it impossible
for the Canadians to act as hosts at Victoria.’^274
At the same time, Carter pointed out that Tarr had ‘indicated’ to
Jessup that ‘if at a later date it should seem desirable to shift the locale of
the November Study Meeting to a neutral country the Canadians would
of course yield the privilege of host to whatever Council the Chairman
might decide was best able to entertain the members.’^275 On September
19, in a circular concerning the syllabus for discussion at the study meet-
ing, Carter again drew attention to the Canadian Council’s declared will-
ingness to yield the privilege of host. He indicated in the circular that
by the time the circular reached the distant councils, the chair of the
(^273) ‘Memoirs of William L. Holland,’ in Hooper, ed., Remembering the Institute of Pacific
Relations, 24.
(^274) Edward C. Carter to the national secretaries of the IPR, 5 September 1939,
Conférence permanente des hautes études internationales, Institutions internationales:
Institute of Pacific Relations, 1935–1940, AG 1-IICI-K-V-5, UA. See also Mitchell and
Holland, eds., Problems of the Pacific, 1939, v.
(^275) Carter to the national secretaries of the IPR, 5 September 1939, AG 1-IICI-K-V-5,
UA.