ABSTRACT
The concept of the Pacific Community defined the initial setting of the IPR, and the basic structure and directions of the IPR were in place by the end of the second conference. Contending visions for the IPR and the regional order, however, had not diminished. The period between 1928 and 1932 was transitional. This spanned the latter half of Merle Davis’s term as General Secretary to the period when Jerome Greene was caretaker of the ISIPR as Chairperson of the Pacific Council (1930–2). Lionel Curtis, leading figure of the IPR group at the RIIA, or Chatham House, and British representative at the Pacific Council, presented the strongest alternative vision in this period. For some, he challenged the initial concept of the Pacific Community, the IPR’s structure, personnel, direction and functions, which they saw as a major factor contributing to Davis’s resignation. Most key IPR figures – Davis, Atherton, Greene and Carter – opposed Curtis’s reform plan. Nevertheless, Curtis’s challenge prompted them to scrutinize their own visions. Almost every step they took in 1927–9 can be seen as a reaction to this challenge. In this process, the nature and directions of the IPR were renegotiated and redefined, and certain latent elements in the initial setting of 1925–7 became clearer. As a result, IPR operations displayed the very characteristics that Herbert Croly had warned against in 1927 – more state orientation and more direct involvement in foreign policy-making. They were also diverging from a regional-centred view of the world.
