APPENDIX A XLI 



the idea of an international Research Council, of which this group of 

 eminent men would form the nucleus. 



A meeting was held in London in October to discuss the policy 

 of the leading scientific academies, and a further meeting was held in 

 November in Paris, when an executive committee of five, representing 

 France, Great Britain, Belgium, Italy and the United States, was 

 appointed to draft a general constitution, to consult representatives 

 of the different national scientific societies, and to prepare the way for 

 an international congress at Brussels in July, 1919. At this great 

 congress in Brussels were gathered, in the Palais des Academies, about 

 200 representatives of nearly all branches of science from the allied 

 nations. The delegates were nominated by the representative councils 

 and scientific national academies of the Allies. 



Dr. Hale's original plan was simply to replace the international 

 association of academies by an organization in closer touch with the 

 various international associations or unions. A much more elaborate 

 plan was proposed by the European delegates at Paris, which included 

 an inter-allied research institute that would provide the means of 

 reaching a common agreement as to what researches were most vital 

 and should be undertaken either because of the pressure of economic 

 necessity or in the light of recent progress. This institute was to 

 have the power of selecting the countries or associations best adapted 

 to undertake certain researches, and of coordinating the work of the 

 investigators in the different countries. It was to have been esta- 

 blished in Paris or Brussels and included an elaborate editorial organ- 

 ization to place the bibliography of science on an inter-allied basis 

 by reducing the number and improving the character of the large 

 reference books of each science, such as dictionaries, monographs, 

 abstracts and other similar publications, all to be in either the French 

 or English language, practically establishing a publishing house for 

 international scientific literature, and replacing the Zeitschrifts, 

 Central-blatts, etc., of Germany. The institute, as suggested by the 

 French and Belgium delegates, would also form an international 

 scientific library and an international bureau of scientific bibliography 

 and would have a complete stafï to administer a world-wide research 

 council on the lines of the National Research Council of the United 

 States, and similar organizations in England and France. 



This plan of centralizing the control of the scientific research of 

 the world, when studied by the special comm_ittee of five, was con- 

 sidered to be a goal perhaps attainable at some future date. It 

 involved clashing of interests and infringed on the rights of the older 

 international societies. It was deemed wiser, therefore, to make 



