Royal Institute of International Affairs

Abstract

THE report of the Council of the Royal Institute of International Affairs submitted to the eighteenth annual general meeting on November 2 refers to the establishment of a chair of international economics at the Institute, Chatham House, London, S.W.I, as a result of a gift of £20,000 from Sir Henry Price. Prof. Allan G. B. Fisher, of the University of Western Australia, has been appointed as the first holder of this chair and will assume his duties in January 1938. It is hoped that this is the first of what will become a group of research chairs devoted to the study of international affairs, and the council contemplates the establishment of research chairs in British Commonwealth relations, international law and institutions and Far Eastern affairs as soon as provision can be made for them. In addition to these important developments, which were largely inspired by the work of Prof. Arnold Toynbee, holder of the Stevenson research chair in international history, the council has been able to maintain its programme of research by individual scholars and by study groups through the support of the trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation, who in January 1937 renewed for a further five years their grant of £8,000 a year. Four reports in the Study Group Series were completed during the year, covering "The British Empire", "The Problem of International Investment", "The Colonial Problem" and "The Republics of South America: a Political, Economic and Cultural Survey". Particulars of these, and of other publications of the Institute, are included in an appendix. The Rockefeller Foundation has also made a special grant for an investigation of the refugee problem. The report includes particulars of a number of other research projects which are in progress as well as meetings held and study groups in being. It is expected that the African Research Survey will be completed and published early in 1938, the preliminary survey having been extended to cover administration, economics, scientific research and social relations.