THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

sations created by diplomatic treaty. Dr. Inazo Nitobe was
appointed one of two Under Secretaries-General. 35 Otlet's
personal contact with the officials of the League was initiated
by a letter to Colonel House in Paris. House was friend and
close adviser of President Wilson. He had drafted for Wilson
the articles and a preamble to the League's Covenant. Otlet
wrote asking how the UIA could be of help to the League,
pointing out that behind the UIA there lay «the very conception
of a Society of Nations . . . but more particularly in
connection with the needs of the scientific, moral, intellectual
and social order of such a society, leaving the needs of the
political order to diplomatic action». 36 A vigorous correspondence
ensued between Otlet and La Fontaine and Sir Eric
Drummond, Nitobe and other officials of the League. An early
culmination of the contact thus initiated was a visit by a
group from the League including Nitobe, to the offices of the
UIA for talks with Otlet and La Fontaine. The visit was preceded
by a dispatch from Brussels of a file of publications
and notes about the UIA and about a W'orld Congress it was
proposing to hold in I920. 37
After the visit Otlet and La Fontaine prepared a Memorandum
for Drummond setting out what they saw as the
role of the League with respect firstly to individual international
associations and secondly with respect to the UIA.
They observed that the co-operation of the League with international
associations was provided for in Section 24 of
the Charter, specific responsibilities for inter-governmental
bureaux and commissions being set down there,, but with
provision also for general assistance to other forms of international
association. The League should, therefore, they insisted,
take pains to recognise the work of the international associations
in full. It should co-operate closely with them, especially
as they dealt primarily with matters of the intellect as opposed
to political and diplomatic matters. More specifically,
they suggested that a process should be devised so that the
international associations, assured of an attentive hearing
within the League itself, could communicate more freely with
it. Delegates from the League should be sent to the meetings
of the associations. The League should sponsor a law to
accord them proper international legal status. Above all in
its various deliberations the League should call on the information
and expertise available in relevant associations.
Special attention, however, Otlet and La Fontaine observed,
should be given to the UIA as the central, federative
body of so many international associations. The League should
regularly use the services and collections of the Union. It
should have a permanent delegate to its offices. It should
offer financial and other aid to help it carry out various
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