4 INTELLECTUAL COOPERATION IN WAR-TIME AND PLANS ... 375the veto power over decisions made by the Pacific Council that certain
national councils, the Japanese Council among them, enjoyed by virtue
of the IPR’s original constitution, was abolished.^92 The USSR Council
was also unrepresented at the conference a fact which, while keenly
regretted by all those assembled, was viewed as understandable in light of
the circumstances then facing the Soviet Union.^93
Reflecting on the Mont Tremblant conference in early 1943, Holland
observed that the conference took place during ‘a momentous period of
world history and at a point which future historians will probably recognise
as a crucial stage in the second world war.’^94 Holland pointed out that the
anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbour fell in the middle of the confer-
ence and that the American naval and air losses resulting from that attack had
greatly contributed to Japan’s lightning conquests in the `Southwest
Pacific during the first four months of fighting....Earlier illusions about
Japan’s weaknesses were rapidly shattered as the enemy showed himself to
be a fierce, tough, amazingly stubborn and skilful fighter and as Japan took
over the great raw material prizes of Southeast Asia.^95Holland further observed that the Japanese conquests were grave set-
backs for the Allied cause, however, he added that developments in the
last few months of 1942 indicated that the tide of the war was turning in
a significant, although not yet definitive, way. Hence, the guiding prem-
ise of the discussion at the conference was that of Allied victory. Holland
explained the shift in the course of the war as follows:
Japan’s territorial advances had been stopped and she had suffered heavy
naval, air and shipping losses, India, though still suffering from a grave
internal impasse and official repression of the Congress Party for its
attempt at civil disobedience, had been spared an actual invasion. With
painful slowness and in pathetically small amounts, supplies were being
carried by air into Western China from India.(^92) ‘The Memoirs of William L. Holland,’ in Hooper, ed., Remembering the Institute of
Pacific Relations, 24.
(^93) Holland, preface to International Secretariat, Institute of Pacific Relations, War and
Peace in the Pacific, vi.
(^94) International Secretariat, Institute of Pacific Relations, War and Peace in the Pacific, 1.
(^95) Ibid.