Tea Conference

A man who has looked on the bleak Himalayas and crossed the forbidden hills of Tibet honored Manhattan with his attention last week. "I was forcibly reminded of Mount Everest when I arrived," he declared. "This was when I saw the new Chrysler Building."

He was ruddy, stalwart Sir Francis Edward Younghusband, 66, of Westerham, Kent, native of India, veteran army officer and diplomatist, treaty-maker with Tibet (1904)*, committee head of the expedition to climb unconquered Mount Everest. In Manhattan he was guest of honor at a "Tea Conference" of The Threefold Movement, of which he is London committee chairman. He told his hosts why no attempt has recently been made to scale the world's highest peak. Said he: "The Tibetans believe that their gods have been offended and are angry and so have requested us not to apply at present for leave to make another expedition." (The last expedition, in 1924, cost the lives of 13, including a Tibetan.)

But the pith of his address was an enthusiastic plea for accord with the Far East. Speaking of East Indians, Chinese and Japanese, he declared: "They like to feel their arts and culture generally are appreciated by the western world, and are disposed to look upon us as inclined more to the material and rather neglectful of their arts. The more we can show our appreciation of these things, the better the understanding will be. ... It is also essential that they understand that we care more for their arts and culture than they give us credit for."

These theories were eagerly absorbed by Sir Francis's listeners. By pageants, music, lectures, publications, tea conferences and celebrations, The Threefold Movement, with committees in principal U. S., European and Asiatic cities, is attempting to stimulate ''The Realization of Peace and Brotherhood--through Understanding and Neighborliness--uniting people of All Religions, Races, Countries, Classes and Conditions--not merely by Preaching but by Practice--by building Bridges of Mutual Appreciation across the Chasms of Prejudice." It is called Threefold because its ideals are cultural, racial and spiritual unity. Prominent U. S. Threefolders: Robert Norwood, dynamic rector of St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church, Manhattan; Joseph Fort Newton, famed Philadelphia divine; Banker Paul Moritz Warburg; Journalist Louis Wiley (New York Times); Negro Author James Weldon Johnson; Kansan William Allen White; John Grier Hibben, president of Princeton University.

*The geographical position of Lhasa, capital of Tibet, long forbidden ground to Europeans, was determined by the mathematical process of triangulation after considerable work in which Sir Francis was prominent.

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