International and entirely nonpolitical authority, whose business it is to

put the intellectuals of all the nations, who were isolated by the war, into

touch with each other. It is a difficult task; for it has, alas, to be

admitted that--at least in the countries with which I am most closely

acquainted--the artists and men of learning are governed by narrowly

nationalist feelings to a far greater extent than the men of affairs.

Hitherto this Commission has met twice a year. To make its efforts more

effective, the French Government has decided to create and maintain a

permanent Institute for intellectual co-operation, which is just now to be

opened. It is a generous act on the part of the French nation and deserves

the thanks of all.

It is an easy and grateful task to rejoice and praise and say nothing

about the things one regrets or disapproves of. But honesty alone can help

our work forward, so I will not shrink from combining criticism with this

greeting to the new-born child.

I have daily occasion for observing that the greatest obstacle which

the work of our Commission has to encounter is the lack of confidence in its

political impartiality. Everything must be done to strengthen that

confidence and everything avoided that might harm it.

When, therefore, the French Government sets up and maintains an

Institute out of public funds in Paris as a permanent organ of the

Commission, with a Frenchman as its Director, the outside observer can

hardly avoid the impression that French influence predominates in the

Commission. This impression is further strengthened by the fact that so far

a Frenchman has also been chairman of the Commission itself. Although the

individuals in question are men of the highest reputation, liked and

respected everywhere, nevertheless the impression remains.

Dixi et salvavi animam naeam. I hope with all my heart that the new

Institute, by constant interaction with the Commission, will succeed in

promoting their common ends and winning the confidence and recognition of

intellectual workers all over the world.

A Farewell

A letter to the German Secretary of the League of Nations

Dear Herr Dufour-Feronce,

Your kind letter must not go unanswered, otherwise you may get

a mistaken notion of my attitude. The grounds for my resolve to

go to Geneva no more are as follows: Experience has,

unhappily, taught me that the Commission, taken as a whole,

stands for no serious determination to make real progress with

the task of improving international relations. It looks to me far

more like an embodiment of the principle ut aliquid fieri

videatur. The Commission seems to me even worse in this

respect than the League taken as a whole.

It is precisely because I desire to work with all my might for the

establishment of an international arbitrating and regulative

authority superior to the State, and because I have this object

so very much at heart, that I feel compelled to leave the

Commission.

The Commission has given its blessing to the oppression of the

cultural minorities in all countries by causing a National

Commission to be set up in each of them, which is to form the

only channel of communication between the intellectuals of a

country and the Commission. It has thereby deliberately

abandoned its function of giving moral support to the national

minorities in their struggle against cultural oppression.

Further, the attitude of the Commission in the matter of

combating the chauvinistic and militaristic tendencies of

education in the various countries has been so lukewarm that no

serious efforts in this fundamentally important sphere can be

hoped for from it.

The Commission has invariably failed to give moral support to

those individuals and associations who have thrown themselves

without reserve into the business of working for an international

order and against the military system.

The Commission has never made any attempt to resist the

appointment of members whom it knew to stand for tendencies

the very reverse of those it is bound in duty to foster.