REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN

WORK

C. W. AMES, J. M. LITTLE, J. D. LONG, J. E. WRIGHT, ALICE R. KEYES, COMMITTEE.

The chief event of the past year in the large field covered by this Committee has been the second meeting of the International Council, held at Amsterdam last September, at which our Association was represented by twenty-eight accredited delegates, including the President of the Association, the President of the Women's Alliance, the President of the Free Religious Association, and the Secretary of the International Council. The reports of our delegates, the printed volume of the Proceedings, the accounts of the meetings, have broadened our horizon and reinspired our courage. We are assured by the President of the Association that this International Council is now the most significant organization in Christendom that bears the Unitarian name. We take pride and pleasure in the fact that it was initiated by this Association, and organized here in Boston at the time of the Seventy-fifth Anniversary of our Association, four years ago. The Committee desires to promote the interests of the International Council in every way, and to co-operate with our friends and fellow-workers in other lands, who are endeavoring to establish pure religion and perfect liberty. The President of the Association has made a number of recommendations looking toward this closer co-operation and larger efficiency, but the financial resources

of the Association have not permitted the Committee to carry any of these recommendations into effect.

The small budget at the disposal of the Committee has been absorbed chiefly by the aid given to the work of the Japan Unitarian Association, though a small subsidy has been given, as heretofore, to the Unitarian church in Buda Pesth, Hungary. This latter appropriation is made to express our sympathy and good will toward our fellow-believers in Hungary in the support of their chief missionary enterprise in the capital city. The British and Foreign Unitarian Association makes a similar appropriation.

The work in Japan has gone forward without marked change, but with increasing stability, and with steady growth in the sense of local responsibility. The chief event, from the point of view of this Association, has been the final securing of the title to the property in Tokyo in the hands of the Secretary of this Association. Under Japanese law the property in Tokyo has heretofore been held by trustees in Tokyo,-a method which would have proved awkward in the event of the death of one or another of these trustees. After long negotiations, extending over three years, including many letters to and from the State Department in Washington and the Japanese embassy, and personal interviews with Mr. Masujima of Tokyo, one of the trustees visiting America, the papers have at last been completed; and the property in Tokyo is now held by the Secretary of the Association in trust for the corporation. Japanese law forbids any foreign corporation holding real estate in Japan. Under Japanese law, therefore, Mr. St. John is the absolute owner of the property. Here he files his declaration that he holds the property in trust for the Association.

While the work in Tokyo shows no significant changes in the past year, it may be well to remind the members of the Association of the character and quality of the work done. The work is in charge of a band of twelve or fourteen of the leading members of the Japan Unitarian Association, holding services Sunday, many week-night gatherings, editing a monthly magazine, conducting active Post-office Mission work, and occasional preaching services in other cities. Two services are held every Sunday in the headquarters at Tokyo, which are always crowded. With the exception of the Director and Secretary, the preachers give their services, most of them being professors or teachers in one or another of the universities in Tokyo. These friends and fellow-workers are a body of able and consecrated men, and conduct their enterprise with zeal and power. For the future development of the work it is essential that a new centre should be established in Tokyo, and for four years past our friends of the Japan Unitarian Association have been gradually raising money locally and saving what they could out of the appropriations of the Association to enable them to buy a lot and build a building in the Kanda district of Tokyo, wherein are situated most of the institutions of education. It is hoped that in the course of the coming year the subscription will reach a sufficient figure to enable the Association to buy the lot which has long been in sight, and to build thereon a hall which will seat eight or nine hundred people. The hall need not be expensive. The land is expensive. Plans have been drawn for the building, and approved by this Committee.

The Committee is much indebted to the information and advice derived from Rev. Thomas L. Eliot, D.D., and General W. W. Blackmar, the commissioners of

the Association who a year ago visited Tokyo and conferred with our local friends and representatives in regard to the conduct of their work. The Committee is also indebted to Colonel and Mrs. Wood of the United States legation in Tokyo, who are active in the work of the mission and exceedingly helpful in interesting friends both in America and Japan in its welfare. The Director and the Secretary of the Japanese Unitarian Association are in constant correspondence with the officers of the Association, and their quarterly reports indicate that their administration is careful, economical, and efficient.

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION

PRESENTED BY REV. JOHN P. FORBES.

At present the only duty assigned to the Committee on Education is the distribution of the income of the Perkins Fellowship Fund of $16,300, which provides two fellowships of $200, each in aid of students who are preparing for the Unitarian ministry and who wish to pursue special courses of advanced study.

The Perkins Fellowships were assigned for study at Harvard University to Mr. John H. Lathrop, who was previously graduated from the Meadville Divinity School and who has spent a satisfactory year at Harvard, and Mr. Z. Toyosaki, who unfortunately has been unable to complete the entire year, having been summoned to return to Japan.