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It was a great honour for me to assist in preparing this International Conference on Holographic Applications for that part of the world where the idea of holography was created by Dennis Gabor in the fourties - that is Europe. Although my function as a chairman of the regional European program committee was combined with some additional work, it was always a pleasure for me to contribute to an effort to bring us "holographers" together in a country most of us, who are foreign here, have not yet been before, and in this way spreading the exchange of experience and knowledge to our mutual advantage also in this part of the world. As scientists we have the great chance to overcome borders and restrictions of ideology and other constraints, and to meet openly and with friendship. The name of the place in Beijing where ICHA-86 was hold - Friendship Hotel - may act as a symbol in this sense. But on the other hand this puts a burden on our shoulders, that is to work on keeping this independance and freedom of science. If we look on our scientific child or - for the younger ones among us - already our scientific mother - I mean holography, we cannot avoid recognizing that we did not only always use ways to keep this independance and freedom. I mean the deep envolvement of holographic technolgies in the - to my feelings - darkest point of human thinking - that is the development of mutual military deterrence, which threatens mankind and separates people, including ourselves. We have to confess that this is true from the very beginning of practical applications of holography. Who takes the time to read not only the scientific text of publications in our field but also pays attention to where and what for these investigations were undertaken and by whom they were paid, can easily see that this is still an increasingly growing development. Also in this meeting, if we want to or not, we have to realize that the ambiguity of applications of the most modern developments in our field is demonstrated. Thus, I feel we are approaching a cross road, where we have to decide what the future way of our science will be. I hope, we will demonstrate with this conference clearly, what great potentials our work can offer to the benefit and social development of mankind. Thus, I also hope, that our decision for the future of holographic applications will go clearly in a non-destructive direction. In this sense I wish - not only the organizers of this conference - but all of us success.
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