THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

Following deplorable circumstances the offices of the Headquartersand
General Secretariat of the IID have had to be transferred from
the Palais Mondial to 44 Rue Fetis, Brussels, an address, which is,.
however, only temporary. 21
The address, that of Otlet's home, was not temporary. The
Palais Mondial never again opened its doors in its old form.
At the end of 1938, four years later, the Government did at last
agree to provide alternative quarters for it in the Palais du
Cinquantenaire, but the Second World War intervened, and
with mobilisation in Belgium, «a cavalry regiment occupied
the locations destined for the Mundaneum». 22 After the outbreak
of War, these troops were replaced by others — German
troops. Otlet protested the closure of the Mundaneum bykeeping
vigil outside its locked doors during the whole of the
1st June 1934. 23
The government's action, as terrible as it was for all of
Otlet's hopes for the Palais Mondial, probably had the beneficial
though incidental effect of bringing the Dutch and Belgians
together, or at least, of arresting the widening rift between
them. Whatever their differences of opinion about centralisation
of the IID around a unique bibliographical collection,
these had all been obviated by the government when it
turned the key in the doors of the Palais Mondial. Now all
that was left was Otlet's office in the Rue Fetis, the Dutch office
maintained by Donker Duyvis, the national sections, and
the UDC. Any work at all within the Institute had to be carried
out through its new structural and procedural machinery
which had largely been, introduced at the instigation of the
Dutch after a similar action of the Belgian government ten
years before. Betrayed once again by the government and denied
even the OIB whose integrity he had attempted to preserve
in the face of organisational changes within the Institute,
Otlet now rescinded the codicil in his will in favour of
it. 24 It seems that Otlet and La Fontaine had recourse to the
Courts for redress. The case was heard in October 1935 and
it was revealed
that the state had no grievance at all against the Union [of International
Associations]; on the contrary, its defending lawyer publicly
praised the representatives of the Union, the founders of the Palais
Mondial. The defence limited itself simply to pleading the precarious
nature of (the Government's] engagement [with the UIA]. It completely
denied the legal value of the terms, however formal, of a confirming
letter of 1926 of the Minister of Sciences and Arts of the time:
«while awaiting the building of convenient locations your collections
will not be dislodged». 25
The League, embroiled in major political and economic struggles,
was once again informed of the events and once again
ignored them. 26
The closure of the Palais Mondial did not stop its educational
work. Nothing, of course, could be done on the col-
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