International

On the international scene, N.Z. U.S.A. last year offered a Southeast Asian Scholarship to an Indonesian student, Wasisto Surjodinin-grat, for a one-year post-graduate course at Auckland. The scholarship, of the value of £1000 and originally intended for two years, was made available by the efforts of local Committees in the University centres Victoria raised the sum of £220 by holding a raffle and organising socials. It is proposed to offer the scholarship in 1959 to a South-east Asian student, for a two-year postgraduate course in N.Z.

A tour of Australia by a group of Indonesian students is planned for this year, and N.Z.U.S.A. hopes to be able to invite the team to tour New Zealand after they have visited Australia.

Two delegates from N.Z.U.S.A. have been selected each year since 1953 to attend the International Student Conferences. In 1954, M. J. O'Brien and J. D. Dalgety (ex-V.U.C. graduates) flew to Istanbul; in 1955 W. N. Smith (O.U.) and G. Brewster (Res. Exec.) flew to Birmingham; in 1956 P. Gordon (A.U.), G. Brewster and P. Boag (A.U.), flew to Colombo; and in 1957, B. V. Galvin (current President of N.Z. U.S.A.) and P. Boag flew to Ibadan, Nigeria. The contribution of New Zealand delegates to these conferences has been considerable, and they have often taken the Chair in Commissions held at the Conference.

Although to one who knows little about the work of the I.S.C. the gains of participation seem negligible; in fact, in terms of personal friendships established, of misunderstandings removed, and the constant attempts at a better and more complete co-operation between national unions, the Conferences, in spite of difficulties, represent a unique attempt to establish mutual trust and understanding and co-operation for welfare between differing national groups. This is something which is a first, if frail, basis for the leadership and fruitful initiative which is so profoundly lacking in the disintegration and decline under which world politics now suffer.

—B. C. Shaw,

V.U.W. representative on N.Z. U.S.A. Resident Executive.