THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

keep before the President and the Council of the League «the
things realised and the plans» of the LJIA. 37 It reminded them
of the Secretary-General's 1921 report on the educational influence
of the UIA, and alerted them to the approaching Conference.
They were asked to delay making any decision on the
French proposal to set up an Institute for Intellectual Co-operation
until after the UIA Conference had finished.
The League's Council accepted the French Government's
offer «in principle* on the 9th September, the day the UIA
Conference concluded. It referred the matter for consideration:
to the Assembly asking for its opinion on several points, one
of which was
the relations between the projected Institute and existing internationat
institutions, such as the Union of International Associations, the International
Office of Bibliography, the International Union of Academies,
and the International Research Council, whose headquarters are at
Brussels and whose autonomy it is important to maintain.
The Assembly concluded that the Committee on Intellectual
Co-operation should
in each case determine, having consulted the interested parties and 1
in agreement with them, the relations of the institutions mentioned
in the Council's resolution... The Committee on Intellectual Cooperation
will attempt to collaborate with these institutions to resolve
particular questions without, however, in any way restricting their
autonomy. 38
This was disguised repudiation of the UIA and its World'
Center. Otlet and La Fontaine wanted a stay of action by the
League on the French Government's offer because the UIA's
World Center could become, was already, though ineffective
for want of support, they believed, everything which the French
Government proposed to create. Simple recognition of this
fact would be enough, for inevitably patronage-and a healthy
subsidy would follow and the day would be saved for the Palais
Mondial. A recognition of «autonomy» was in effect a form of
rejection.
After the 1924 Conferences in Geneva, Godfrey Dewey
went back to America where he continued his work for the Palais
Mondial in general and for the IIB in particular. In November
he began to make appeals for specific information. The
Lake Placid Club was ready to publish a booklet about the
Palais Mondial, he said, «but I can do nothing definit on that
til I have the date, fotografs, diagrams and translations of
the legends on them, that yu promist». 39 He began to travel
and speak about the World Palace, and kept repeating his appeals
for accurate information. «Yu make a great mistake*,,
he warned, «if yu send me only the favorable items». Above
all he wanted to know, having heard talk of moving the Palais
Mondial and all its institutes to Geneva,
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