International > Proceedings of the second General conference of national committees on intellectual co-operation, Paris, July 5th-9th, 1937

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makes the contacts there formed less intimate and less productive of practical results than would
be the case if two Committees met and considered a definite programme of mutual work. This
naturally suggests the benefits which might result from regional conference of national committees.
I now come to a consideration of the influence of distance as affecting the work of national
committees, though of course this aspect has entered, in a more or less important degree, into all
that has gone before. First, may I refer to the obvious factor of its effect on the transmission
of material and information. This is most noticeable in respect to requests for reports which have
to reach Paris in time for inclusion in publications of the Institute. The problem is due perhaps
more to local conditions than to actual distance from Paris. Thus, for example, information on
matters relating to education, or libraries and museums in Australia, cannot be secured quickly.
Copies of questionnaires have to be sent to six separate State Education Departments or six
universities, libraries or art galleries, and replies received from all of them before I can, as the
national committee, co-ordinate these into one representative statement for transmission to the
Institute. Ordinary mails to Australia require five weeks. Postage to the most distant State
capital in Australia takes a week. It will be seen, therefore, that for Australia or similar outlying
countries, more time must be provided in which to prepare reports for inclusion in Institute
publications than is the case with European countries. Might I suggest the use of airmail where
possible when submitting such matters to outlying national committees ?
Undoubtedly, the outstanding handicap which distance from the headquarters of the League
of Nations Secretariat and the Paris Institute imposes on outlying national committees is the
lack of personal contacts with officials and with other national committees. I have already
referred to this and made the suggestion for the holding of regional conferences. There are, however,
two other proposals which I would submit for consideration. To be conscious of one’s isolation
is to produce a sense of frustration in work of this character. Our present Conference of National
Committees is only the second in the whole history of the League of Nations. I recognise that
the holding of such Conferences is difficult and expensive, but the difficulties of bringing the
mountain to Mahomet are overcome by sometimes bringing Mahomet to the mountain — in other
words, might it not be arranged for officials of the Secretariat and the Institute to visit outlying
national committees ? The League of Nations has, I think, set us an example in this matter in
the appointment of liaison officers, and I know that, on more than one occasion, representatives
of the International Labour Office have visited Australia. Such visits would not only be
productive of information and encouragement to national committees, but could be used to make
the aims and objects of the Intellectual Co-operation Organisation more widely known to the
peoples of these countries.
Secondly, since the Institute is an integral part of the League of Nations, it is of advantage
to emphasise this association in connection with the delegations sent each year by member nations
to the annual meetings at Geneva. Speaking in respect to the practice in Australia, I may say
that, unfortunately, this association has never to my knowledge been officially recognised, nor has
the necessity been recognised of having at least some member of the Australian delegation who
has a personal knowledge of the work of the Intellectual Co-operation Organisation, and is prepared
and able to contribute to the discussion of intellectual co-operation matters when they come up
on the agenda in the form of the annual report of the International Committee on Intellectual
Co-operation. It is not easy for a national committee to alter this position, but I feel sure that,
if it was brought to the attention of the League of Nations and the suggestion was made that the
League should formally request the Governments of member nations to endeavour as far as possible
to include in their delegations some individual associated with the work of national committees,
it would receive sympathetic support. In this way, not only would the national committee
benefit, but I am sure the discussions at the League Assembly meetings would prove
more interesting and helpful to the Institute of Intellectual Co-operation itself.
It is not necessary to do more than mention the limitations which distance places on such
matters as exchange of professors and teachers, student visits and loan exhibitions. There is,
however, one other aspect of a psychological character which is the result of isolation combined
with the high degree of racial unity in Australia — i.e., a lack of sympathy and understanding of
the work of the Institute in breaking down the age-old antipathies of nations and peoples in older
countries. A nation which is more than 98% British, inhabiting an island continent in which the
indigenous race was never a serious problem is apt to be impatient over the racial and national
problems of Europe, and unappreciative of the slow but constructive work which the League of
Nations and the Institute are engaged upon. The obligation, therefore, which this lays upon
our national committee to engage in an educational campaign is a responsibility of which I am
acutely conscious, but which demands a more able and effective national committee than myself.
FUNCTION OF NATIONAL COMMITTEES AS A FACTOR
IN NATIONAL INTELLECTUAL LIFE.
By Karol Lutostanski,
Professor at the Joseph Pilsudski University, Warsaw.
Chairman of the Polish National Committee on Intellectual Co-operation.
[Point 5, II, G, on the Agenda.1
It is practically impossible to draw a hard and fast line between the function of our committees
in national intellectual life and their function in international life. These two aspects of their
activities are so closely interrelated that every detail is at the same time national and international.