THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

sufficient pressure to bear to force the Government to decide
to appoint a Commission to examine the educational and
scientific value of various parts of the Palais Mondial in order
to determine the nature of its rights to the locations which it
had been given. The Commission consisted of academics from
the Universities of Ghent and Liege — «bitter disillusion*, wrote
Otlet somewhat cryptically. «It is concluded*, he said, reporting
someone's comment, «go to the moon! Basically you are
courageous people but you would feel more at home on another
planet». 6 The Commission was not actually appointed until
the end of April 1922 by which time thirty two rooms of the
Palais Mondial had been cleared and occupied for nearly two
weeks by representatives of the Fair.
The Commission's conclusions were to some degree as
Otlet had feared. It decided that the UIA had no permanent
rights at all to the locations occupied by the Palais Mondial
in the Palais du Cinquantenaire. It singled out the International
Institute of Bibliography and the International Library
for special commendation. It urged that these institutions
should be left where they were, provided they did not interfere
with the growth of the Musees Royaux, until such time
as the UIA could afford to erect its own building. As for the
rest of the institutes of the Palais Mondial, it was completely
a matter for the discretion of the Government as to when they
should be required to put their quarters at its disposal. 7 It
was clear by this time, the government, unstable and hostile,
and the economy in a grave condition, that no more would
be heard of a special Palais Mondial to be erected from public
funds in the Pare de Woluwe, and it was firmly borne in
upon Otlet that something drastic needed to be done to secure
the future of the Palais Mondial as it then existed. He decided,
therefore, to call an international conference to consider the
question of wider international support. This was to be held
on the occasion of a third Quinzaine Internationale which
was planned for August 1922.
In the middle of the occupation of part of the Palais-
Mondial by the Commercial Fair, Nitobe wrote to Otlet suggesting
that the League's Secretariat for International Associations
should publish a journal of information useful to international
associations. He wondered if there was any prospect
of the UIA bringing out La Vie Internationale again at some
time in the near future. The League was reluctant to duplicate
of encroach on the Union's work. He thought, however,
that such a «news» journal as he was proposing, far from
threatening any aspect of the activities of the Union, would
further its objectives, even if, in fact, La Vie internationale
were to be revived. In any case, he said, «without your
252