International > International committee on intellectual co-operation

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To assist librarians in purchasing suitable books, a bibliography on the League of Nations
should be prepared ; the reader could then select the work which appeared to him to be of
particular interest. \
Librarians have complained^ of the obscurity of the classification of the League
publications and the ensuing difficulties of choosing among them those of general interest.
The Sub-Committee has decided to bring these cristicisms to the notice of the competent
services of the Secretariat.
Although Governments and associations can be expected to give their attention to this
question of libraries, it must be pointed out that private initiative is particularly effective in
this field. If the innumerable members of international associations were continually to
ask their town libraries to supply League publications or works regarding the League,
librarians would soon procure them.
XIV. The International Spirit.
In the second place, the Sub-Committee of Experts was asked for its opinion as to the
best methods of training the younger generation to regard international co-operation as the
normal method of conducting world affairs.
The very statement of the problem indicates how vast a field it covers. Volumes could
be written on the subject and a detailed survey given of the work of the International Com¬
mittee on Intellectual Co-operation and the Institute.
The Sub-Committee has made a modest attempt to sketch the outline of the question.
It realises, however, that these recommendations will be almost useless if they are to be merely
ephemeral and if there is not some organisation which has to see that they are carried into
effect. It is mainly for this reason that a permanent centre of information seems essential.
XV. The Teachers and Their Training.
It is principally upon the teaching staff, from the elementary school teacher to the
University professor, that we must rely to create in the minds of the young a sympathetic
attitude towards international co-operation.
The teacher in the schools has therefore an important part to play and a heavy responsi¬
bility to bear in building up the world of to-morrow. Foy that reason, the choice of the
teaching staff in training colleges is perhaps the most important point in any future plan.
In the field in which we are working, the best method is to raise the intellectual level of the
potential teachers and to arouse in them an enthusiasm for the settlement of the affairs of
the world by free agreement among nations.
XVI. Conclusions.
The Sub-Committee expressed the hope that Governments and associations will, if
they approve its work, be guided by its recommendations.
Before dispersing, the Sub-Committee of Experts feels bound to point out to the Interna¬
tional Committee on Intellectual Co-operation and to the Council and the Assembly of the
League that its work would be left incomplete if it were not followed up by practical executive
arrangements.
The Sub-Committee therefore thinks it absolutely essential that an Educational Informa¬
tion Centre should be established in the League, to be responsible for the practical application
of the recommendations and suggestions made by the Sub-Committee of Experts for the Instruc¬
tion of Youth in the Existence and Aims of the League of Nations, and to accustom the public
to look upon international co-operation as the normal method of conducting world affairs.
This office, which should be a small one, should be established at Geneva, in the Secre¬
tariat of the International Committee on Intellectual Co-operation and at the same time at
Paris in the International Institute for Intellectual Co-operation.
The Sub-Committee consequently asks the International Committee on Intellectual
Co-operation to be good enough to submit to the Council and Assembly the following
proposals:
(a) To authorise the creation of a League of Nations Educational Information
Centre;
(b) To authorise the Sub-Committee (or a similar organ of the International
Committee on Intellectual Co-operation) to meet every two or three years to examine
reports sent in by Governments, National Committees on Intellectual Co-operation
and international associations, in order to take note of the practical results of its recom¬
mendations and possibly to supplement them in the light of experience;
(c) To authorise the International Committee on Intellectual Co-operation, in
consultation with the Secretariat and in concert with the Governments concerned,
to appoint yearly, and for each of the great world-languages, a permanent lecturer and
adviser who should be well informed on everything connected with the League. This
lecturer should remain, in countries where this seems most necessary, at the disposal of
the teaching staff and, in general, any associations or groups desirous of promoting a
spirit of international co-operation, and should encourage the practical application of
the Sub-Committee’s recommendations.