Evening star., 1948-12-26

tain countries failed to turn up
There was a good deal of lobbying
about the choice of a new director
general, and the debate trailed
away into trivial side issues such
as whether or not Spanish should
be used as a working language in
addition to English and French
Among all these 400 delegates and
200 members of the secretariat there
were hardly half a dozen really
distinguished men to give the meet
ing an enthusiastic direction. To
make matters still worse the con-
ference was distracted by the up
heaval in Palestine, only go miles
away, and shooting broke out IN
Damascus and Cairo as well.
Some Practical Work
But then (perhaps because of the
very poorness of the start and the
very mediocrity of the delegations)
the conference split itself into small
committees where emotional and
nationalistic speeches did not count
so much; and some really practical
work was done. Some money was
Topped off the budget. The secre-
tariat was given fewer and more
definite instructions. 1t was decided
that the next full conference would
be held 18 months hence in Flor
ence so as to give the secretariat
a chance of getting on with its
work instead of Gas al presently
losing three months in the year
preparing for a conference and an
other three months in recovering
from 1t.
The actual program for 194s is a
document Of IS pages containing
proposals that range from the
study of mountain biology to the
award of series of prizes along
the lines of the Nobel Prize. Per-
haps the. scientists, having some
thing definite to work with, will
again put up the best record. But
for the rest this new program is
largely story Of proposals, sug-
gestionS and inquiries.
Among some Of the more definite
projects there is a book coupon
scheme by which people in soft-cur-
rency areas can buy books from
hard-currency countries. This is
tied up with a fairly wide publish
ing program. In addition to the
magazine Museum and the UNESCO
Courier there will appear in
1949 a number of reference books
which will list such things as the
scholarships available to students
throughout the world. There will
be "a calendar of world events CIV
ing information about the many
educational conferences and such
occasions as the Edinburgh and
Salzburg festivals. UNESCO itself
will organize or assist a number of
conferences during the year SO that
leading scientists, teachers and
others can meet with the idea of
getting a certain amount of inter-
national cohesion into their work.
Several Agreements Drawn
In the same way lecturers will be
assisted in travelling from one
country to another and there will be
number of fellowships to enable
students to travel abroad to educa-
tional centers. In addition UNESCO
will finance the former German
library in Rome and other cultural
and scientific institutions which
might otherwise close down or not
exist at all.
Several international agreements
were drawn up in Beirut. There is
one which will allow educational
films and equipment to pass into
member States free of quota
restrictions and customs duties.
An attempt is to be made to per-
suade distinguished authors and
scientists to write and broacast for
UNESCO this year. And, finally
by far the largest part of the work
"a number of technical surveys are
being put on foot to discover Just
how the nations outside Russia can
bind their educational systems and
their cultures together.
One thing became clear in Beirut:
Except in a limited way, UNESCO
itself would never have enough
money or influence to control the
policy Of its members. It could ad-
wise. It could encourage. 1t could
give the best minds a place to meet
and talk. It could establish itself
as an intellectual clearing house-a
kind Of world university, under
which all the other universities and
institutions grouped themselves in
a voluntary way. But the actual
physical work of civilizing the hu-
man mind would have to be left for
the most part for each nation to
handle for itself.
AS for the conference itself, no
one walked out. Nobody used the
veto. Forty countries managed to
demonstrate that they could meet
for three weeks without major dis
agreement. If UNESCO had lost
Poland for the time being, at least
1t had gained three new members
Switzerland, Siam and Monaco.
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