The Ford grant: a fruitful windfall: Bruce Brown recalls the part played by the Ford Foundation in setting up the NZIIA's National Office.

• Author: Brown, Bruce
• Position: New Zealand Institute of International Affairs

The New Zealand Institute of International Affairs was formed in 1934 at a meeting which included William Downie-Stewart (the former Minister of Finance), Walter Nash ME and Alister McIntosh.

I first joined the NZIIA in 1956--at Walter Nash's suggestion. (I was then serving as his private secretary when he was Leader of the Opposition.) My first meeting of the Wellington branch was at the time of the Suez Crisis, when Britain and France intervened militarily to take hold of the Suez Canal, which President Nasser of Egypt had just nationalised.

My recollection is that there were some twelve members at the meeting, which was held in the VUW staff common room. Those present included NZIIA President Professor John Beaglehole, Professor Fred Wood, Dr Peter Munz, Alan Mulgan (father of the author and soldier John Mulgan) and Murray McLehose, the first secretary of the British High Commission (and later to be Governor of Hong Kong for two full terms, a rare such appointment). The meeting soon got involved in an argument over the merits or otherwise of the British and French actions over Suez, with the great majority strongly opposed to them, and McLehose and Mulgan strongly supporting them.

The NZIIA was later transformed by a grant from the New York-based Ford Foundation of US$100,000 to finance a national office at Victoria University of Wellington's Kelburn campus. The principal member involved in securing this generous grant, which provided for accommodation, research, publications and travel, was the late Les Castle, Professor of Economics at Victoria University, supported by his colleague Professor Frank Holmes. The grant was to cover a period of three years and was not expected to be further renewed.

The NZIIA's National Council gladly accepted this generous grant and its conditions on 28 June 1968. The President, Sir Guy Powles, wrote to the secretary of the Ford Foundation, Howard Dressner, conveying this decision and expressing the NZIIA's gratitude.

The NZIIA quickly approached Victoria University's Vice-Chancellor and were assured that the university was prepared to make office accommodation for the NZIIA immediately available. The university would continue to find accommodation for the institute and would not charge rent--but the institute would need to pay normal costs such as lighting, telephone and cleaning. It would also have to provide most of the initial office furniture.

The National Council also formally requested that the...