THE Research Department of the Foreign Policy Association was inaugurated in September, 1925, under the direction of Professor Edward Mead Earle, of Columbia University. It is charged with the special task of making available data on questions of foreign policy upon which may be based an informed and enlightened public opinion on our international relations.
The purpose of the Association is to have no material go out over the name of the Research Department which does not:
1. Conform to the highest standards of scholarship.
2. Present essential facts illustrating disputed points on contentious questions.
3. Place contemporary events in historical perspective and political proportion.
With no program to promote and no cause other than education to serve, the Department is free to maintain an objective viewpoint in all phases of its work.
The material assembled is available to individuals and organizations interested in foreign affairs. To help meet the need for more accurate and readily accessible source material, the Association offers the following facilities:
INFORMATION SERVICE
The information Service provides fortnightly reports on topics of current international significance. In selecting topics for its reports the Research Department is guided by the relative importance and complexity of the issues involved. The [page 2] following list of recent issues will suggest in a general way the scope of the work:
THE ANTECEDENTS OF LOCARNO; THE CHINESE TARIFF CONFERENCE; THE TURCO-IRAQ BOUNDARY DISPUTE; BRITISH INTERESTS IN MESOPOTAMIA; EXTRATERRITORIALITY IN CHINA; THE FRENCH MANDATE IN SYRIA; FOREIGN TROOPS AND WARSHIPS IN CHINA; DISARMAMENT PROJECTS AND AGREEMENTS; THE CHINESE EASTERN RAILWAY; COLONIAL VS. MANDATE ADMINISTRATION IN AFRICA.
Information Reports now in preparation deal with:
CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES IN ITALY UNDER THE FASCISTI; MEXICO; THE PROBLEM OF MINORITIES; THE BRITISH MANDATE IN PALESTINE; FOREIGN OPINIONS OF THE AMERICAN IMMIGRATION POLICY.
This service is intended especially for the use of those whose task it is to interpret current international events; editors, college professors and teachers of current events, writers, large national organizations, banks and foreign investment firms. It is sent at the present time to the following:
650 Daily Newspapers in forty-eight States;
60 Weekly and Monthly Periodicals;
80 Large Organizations;
100 College Professors conducting courses in International Relations;
100 and more speakers, writers and individuals interested in foreign affairs; libraries, schools and colleges.
SPECIAL STUDIES
The Research Department publishes a series of somewhat larger studies in pamphlet form as special supplements to the Information Service. The first of this series, THE NEAR EAST, A SURVEY OF POLITICAL TRENDS IN 1925, was published in March. Studies in preparation include THE OPIUM PROBLEM IN INDIA; ECONOMIC CONDITIONS OF PRESENT DAY RUSSIA.
SUBSCRIPTION RATES: To Information Service, including Special Studies.
F.P.A Members .......... $3.00
Non-Members .......... $5.00 [page 3]
RESEARCH FOR OTHER ORGANIZATIONS
The Department serves as a fact-finding agency for other organizations interested in the problems of international relations. Since its inception it has prepared special material for a number of important groups. As an illustration of the type of research undertaken, our staff prepared a series of five fact bulletins for the Conference on American Relations with China, held in Baltimore in September, 1925, and supplementary reports incorporated in the volume, "American Relations with China," recently published on behalf of the Conference by the Johns Hopkins University Press. A digest of the decisions of the Permanent Court of International Justice as they affected the German Republic was prepared for the National League of Women Voters. A bibliography on the economic causes of war, and an article on Locarno were compiled for the American Federation of Labor.
The F.P.A. research staff collected, on request, technical information needed by members of the Senate during the recent debates on American adherence to the Permanent Court of International Justice. Memoranda were prepared for individual Senators, for the National League of Women Voters, and for several technical advisers of Senators.
The Research Department is prepared to undertake similar studies for any responsible organization interested in international affairs, for college professors or others. A small fee is charged for special research, based on the time required to complete the work. Bibliographies and specific information which does not involve original research are supplied without charge.
For the efficient administration of the work outlined above, the Research Department has been organized in seven sections, with an expert in charge of each: Western Europe; Central Europe; Russia; the Near East; the Far East; International Organization, including the work of the League of Nations, the International Labor Office, and the Permanent Court of International Justice; and International Drug Control. A section on Latin America is being planned. [page 4]
THE following are excerpts from a few of the many letters written us recently by editors, individuals and others receiving the Information Service. They indicate the response of the various groups to this new departure.
COLONEL EDWARD M. HOUSE -- "I would like to express my pleasure and satisfaction in the bulletins sent out by the Foreign Policy Association.
"I keep in as close contact with foreign affairs as I can and I am in Europe a large part of my time, nevertheless I constantly find something in your bulletins to enlighten me. To those who have less time to devote to the study of foreign affairs they must be a veritable mine of information. They are entirely [nonpartisan] and one never catches a prejudiced note in them. You simply give the facts and permit your readers to draw their own conclusions.
"It seems a pity that you have not more funds with which to widen the circle of your influence, for I do not believe there is an organization doing more valuable work in your field of endeavor."
WALKER D. HINES -- "It seems to me that you are doing an extremely useful work in sending out material of this character."
LOUIS WILEY, New York Times -- "... The information seems to be admirably assembled and arranged; and such reports, carefully confining themselves to facts and avoiding personal opinions, are sure to be of great value in educating our people on foreign affairs. I hope this service of the Association will be extended."
NORMAN THOMAS -- "I think the Foreign Policy Association is rendering a very great service by its admirably impartial, clear and lucid Information Reports on somewhat complicated but very important questions of international policy. I hope the service will meet the appreciation it deserves and will be continued."
PARKER T. MOON, Columbia University -- "I have found them very informing in their content and objective in their viewpoint. I should think that they would be of great value to other university teachers who are dealing with international relations."
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