320 J.-A. PEMBERTON
In the latter part of August and in response to suggestions by sev-
eral of the national councils, revisions had been undertaken of a tenta-
tive agenda that had been circulated on April 5, 1939. Completed on
August 28, the revised agenda was divided into four general topics in
conformity with the division of the Inquiry reports (some twenty-five of
which were available in preliminary form for use by the study meeting),
into four general groups of studies: Japan’s position and policies; China’s
position and policies; the position and policies of the Western pow-
ers in the Far East; and possible methods for the adjustment of specific
problems. Under the heading of ‘Topic IV: Methods of Adjustment,’
members were invited to conjecture as to whether ‘in circumstances
of a European war,’ the Sino-Japanese conflict was likely to result in a
Chinese-dominated peace or a Japanese-dominated peace and, in con-
nection with this, to reflect on what policies the Western powers might
adopt in respect to the conflict in light those same circumstances.^282
In the wake of the German invasion of Poland, the agenda of the
study meeting, as Carter informed members in his circular of September
19, had to be redrafted to some extent.^283 According to Holland who
later observed that the meeting ‘turned out to be interesting’ despite the
difficulties surrounding it, the meeting was ‘[v]ery much focused upon
the impact of the European war on Asian international relations’; indeed,
according Holland, at its meeting at Virginia Beach the IPR ‘concen-
trated more upon European developments than had ever before been the
case.’^284 In respect to the topic of the principal effects of the European
war on the Sino-Japanese conflict and on the positions of the various
powers in the Far East, the final draft of the agenda, before concluding
with a question as to the extent to which any settlement in the Far East
was now dependent on a European settlement, asked the following:
(^282) Carter to IPR members, September 19, 1939, Conférence permanente des hautes
études internationales, Institutions nationales. Institute of Pacific Relations, Honolulu,
1935–1940, AG 1-IICI-K-V-5; Revised Agenda for I.P.R. Study Meeting, August 28,
1939, AG 1-IICI-K-V-5, and Mitchell and Holland, eds., Problems of the Pacific, 1939, v,
- The Inquiry reports ‘constituted the greater part of the Meeting’s documentation and
took the place, in all but a few instances, of the data papers normally supplied to the con-
ferences by the National Council.’
(^283) Edward C. Carter to members of the IPR, September 19, 1939, AG 1-IICI-K-V-5,
UA.
(^284) ‘Memoirs of William L. Holland,’ in Hooper, ed., Remembering the Institute of Pacific
Relations, 24.