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Entire Report
From October 1–7, the Interparliamentary Union will hold its 23rd Conference in Washington. This Union is an international organization, formed in 1889, whose membership includes a high percentage of the members of the parliaments of about thirty-one nations. The purpose of the organization is to conduct investigations in international matters and to aid in their promotion. Annual meetings are held in one capital or another where the results of these investigations are presented and discussed and where draft resolutions are drawn up giving the sense of the conference.
The delegates to the forthcoming conference will be guests of the American group of the Union which includes nearly half of all the Senators and Congressmen and the meetings will be held in the Capitol building. This conference is the result of a joint resolution of Congress dated May 13, 1924, in which Congress requested the President to invite the Union to hold its 1925 meeting in Washington. The parliaments of 31 countries have already signified their intention of sending delegates.
Importance of the Conference
This will be the first meeting of the Union held in the United States since the 1904 conference at St. Louis. The fact that the delegates will assemble at the invitation of the president of the United States and that the meetings will be held in the Capitol building is expected to lend an added importance to this conference. It is also expected that the conference will be especially useful in view of the important developments which are now taking place along international lines as manifested by the Dawes plan, the security pact and the general expectation of a disarmament conference in the near future. As the Union is especially interested in promoting and encouraging all such developments, its deliberations and studies at this moment assume an added significance. From the American point of view it is also important that some of the Latin American republics will attend for the first time as permanent groups. Special emphasis will be laid on the future of pan-Americanism and one of the meetings of the Conference will be held in the pan American Building.
History of the Interparliamentary Union
The idea of an interparliamentary union was conceived by William Randal Cremer, an English trade unionist and member of parliament. Through the prominent part which he played in the industrial struggle in England in 1885, Cremer became an ardent believer in arbitration and was anxious to extend it to international relations. After he entered parliament he devoted all his energies to promoting an arbitration treaty between Great Britain and the United States. In 1887 he induced 234 members of Parliament |
