His achievements far surpass that interesting statistic.

An eloquent speaker, Pascall’s great passion was business ethics. Clearly inspired by Arthur Sheldon, Pascall firmly believed in ethical codes for vocational service. Pascall was a devout Christian and a scrupulous international businessman. As a former RIBI President, Pascall was asked by the RI Board of Directors to speak at the 1927 World Economic Conference called by the League of Nations. The conference attempted to address some of the problems of the increased trend away from free trade towards protectionism. Pascall successfully argued for action to be taken against bribery in commerce and industry.

Pascall also played a pivotal role in RIBI adopting the infamous Resolution #3 in 1927. It stated:

“To provide for the establishment of such forms of administration as will unite the member clubs in the various areas for the purpose of advancing the Aims and Objects of Rotary and securing the effective control and supervision of such Clubs”.

 This resolution, according to Pascall, sought to devolve administrative power away from Chicago in order to allow the upcoming mainland European areas to express themselves in their own way. He said: “The scheme is an attempt for the first time to free the Board of Rotary International from purely local affairs and administration.” This resolution would, in effect, have ended the unique RIBI territorial unit but because of objections and delay (after being initially endorsed at Ostend) the idea was dead by 1937.  Pascall described the problem of the relationship between RIBI and the rest of the Rotary world as this “interesting but sometimes rather trying problem!”

Sydney Pascall’s greatest achievements include his work within RIBI – assisted by RIBI Secretary Vivian Carter and William Moffat of Leeds Rotary Club - in ‘rationalizing’ Rotary objectives under the so-called Aims and Objects Plan. The basic six sentences of Rotary Aims and Objects seemed too vague and bland according to Pascall. His Aims and Objects committee broke down these broad principles in order for the individual club to interpret through 4 avenues of service – Club Service, Community Service, Vocational Service (and later) International Service. Each individual Rotary Club would have four such committees.

It simplified the club committee structure which had become either non-existent or over-complex. This RIBI idea was fully endorsed by Rotary International who complimented Pascall and his committee in their work. Pascall, himself, explained what his committee were striving for.

“This, therefore, led to the idea of a comprehensive Committee which should be responsible for the whole of the Aims and Objects and the propagation of their principles with sub-committees to be responsible for the various main departments into which the Aims and Objects could be logically divided, for example, Vocational Service (Business Methods), Club Service (Fellowship, Acquaintance, etc) and Community Service, so that, under the main Aims and Objects Committee, both subjective and objective activities could be co-ordinated.” Rotary had ‘come of age’ according to the former editor of the RIBI publication ‘Rotary’. David Shelley Nicholl described this significant feat as being “the operational framework upon which the deeds of Rotary have been devised and performed, in many languages, in all climates, on club, National and International scale ever since.”

Sydney Pascall continued serving the movement after his Presidency ended by becoming RIBI Treasurer and serving as Committee Chair in analysing the vexed question of whether there could or should be expansion of Rotary Clubs within the cities.

 More significantly, Pascall chaired a meeting of Ministers of Education in 1942 as part of a Rotary-inspired conference to tackle the mammoth issue of the reconstruction and rehabilitation of education in the post-war world. Many delegates were Rotarians themselves and represented a host of countries including Australia, Belgium, Canada, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, France, Greece, Guatemala, India, Panama, Poland, South Africa, UK USA, USSR and Yugoslavia. And, thus, from the humble beginnings of Sydney Pascall’s committee came into being the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Sydney Pascall was also a personal friend to Paul Harris and, like the founder, visited Rotary the world over. But it was Pascall who reached Australia first and who planted the first Friendship Trees down under.

Calum Thomson

Also see:  Sidney Pascall 1931-32 for his International Convention in Seattle, WA