THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

tions either existing or to be created which pursue aims of study
and research; the great international intellectual establishments existing
or to be created (Scientific Bureaux, International University, International
Institute of Bibliography, International Library, International
Museum, International Laboratories, International Office of Inventions
and Patents, Institute of Standards, Institute of Social Research,
etc. etc.);
To this end, it would be desirable that the League of Nations
with the briefest of delays call together an International Intellectual
Conference charged with the task of drawing up the statutes of such
an organisation, charged also with the task of formulating for the
problems of international reconstruction, conclusions and recommendations
of a scientific kind... 22
THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS
At the end of September, Sir Eric Drummond, the League's
Secretary-General, paid a visit to the Palais Mondial and
spent over an hour looking through it. Otlet took the opportunity
personally to urge the League to set up an organ for
intellectual work whose first tasks should be «the full development
of the International University and Universal Documentation*.
23 He then went away for a short holiday. 24 He
was anxious to be back in Brussels for the meetings of the
League of Nations' Council scheduled to begin there on the
20th October, 1920. On the 23rd, he and La Fontaine formally
passed on to the Council the resolutions of the Congres
Mondial. 25 Paul Hymans, then Belgian Minister to the Council,
presided over its deliberations in Brussels. He asked Otlet for
a report on the International University, and Otlet at once
sent one off not only on the University but on the whole of
the Quinzaine Internationale and the international program
he and La Fontaine were sponsoring, and officially 1 invited
the members of the Council to visit the Palais Mondial. 26
Hymans, it seemed, did nothing about Otlet's reports and
letters. 27 Nitobe, who was also sent a copy of Otlet's report
which he circulated within the League Secretariat, cautioned:
«the plan you propose [for an intellectual organ at the
League] has been suggested by a number of bodies in different
forms and by different countries, and I think the time will
come to co-ordinate them and carry the plan into effect. In
what form this will be, I am, of course, not in a position to
predict*. 28
The first General Assembly of the League of Nations met
in Geneva on November 15, 1920. Paul Hymans was elected
its President and La Fontaine attended as one of the Belgian
representatives. As the deliberations of the Assembly got under
way, Otlet sent the following telegram to Hymans:
Please communicate to Assembly our resolution asking for creation
of international organisation of intellectual work. Hope first world assembly
will indicate sympathy for scientific interests as for economic
interests and will decide on project. 29 229