THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

Imperial College of Science and Technology. 22 Otlet did not
attend this meeting. There were also no representatives from
Poland or Russia or the International Associations. It was
now decided that all official letters from the IIB to the League
of Nations or to Governments should bear the signature of
one of the Secretaries-General and that of the President. As
a political manoeuvre within the Institute this pre-empted any
further exercise of the Otlet-La Fontaine hegemony. They
could not act without the signature of the President but the
President and Donker Duyvis as third Secretary-General had
complete authority if they wished to act independently of
Otlet and La Fontaine. Moreover, as both third Secretary-
General and Secretary of the Institute's most important
Commission or Committee, the International Committee for
the Decimal Classification, Donker Duyvis became more prominent
and powerful in the affairs of the Institute than ever.
Among other matters of a formal or structural nature
examined by the 1929 meeting of the Council were the problems
of membership and the official seat of the Institute. It was
decided that national sections would have eight votes each in
the affairs of the Institute, special sections (the International
Associations) would have four votes, corporate members two
and individual members one. The composition of the Council
was formally determined as consisting of the President,
Secretaries-General, the Treasurer, a representative of the
League of Nations (provided the 1924 convention was implemented),
two members elected by the International Associations
and two members elected by corporate and individual
members, making a total of ten (given the fact that La
Fontaine acted as both Treasurer and Secretary-General).
La Fontaine explained to the meeting, when Pollard raised
the question of the location of the headquarters of the Institute,
that in Belgium the IIB had a legal status that could
be maintained only if the official seat of the Institute were
in Belgium and if three members of its Council were Belgian.
The Council, therefore, decided to modify the Statutes to show
Brussels as its official headquarters. La Fontaine observed
that the decision about the official seat of the IIB «had only a
formal character and served to fulfil the conditions imposed
by Belgian law. The IIB still had to take into account the
possibility of moving to Geneva».
La Fontaine urged the meeting to pursue the 1924 agreement
of the League of Nations' with the IIB. It was time, he
observed, that «both parties should definitely decide their
attitude*. Pollard was instructed by the Council to write to
the League «requesting it either to put into force the present
Convention or to alter the Convention in such a way that
it was acceptable to both parties*. This matter had earlier
311