112 J.-A. PEMBERTON
obviously did not prevent some from entertaining the hope that it might
regain its equilibrium through some great effort of will.
The contribution of the IPC/RUP to the exposition, namely, the
Pavillon de la Paix, reflected this pattern of thinking and should be
viewed, as indeed it was viewed at the time, as an assertive exercise in
peace propaganda. That the pavilion, one of only two international pavil-
ions at the exposition, was intended as a serious propagandistic tool is
underlined by the fact of its strategic location in the Place du Trocadéro,
just opposite the Porte d’honneur of the exposition: the entrance to the
Palais de Chaillot. By the time it was formally inaugurated on July 9 in
the presence of a host of distinguished guests, among them Cecil, Cot,
(the latter of whom presided at the inauguration and who in presiding
read out a message from David Lloyd George who, as British prime min-
ister, had played a major role at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 and
who had been unable to come to Paris on this occasion due to illness),
Lord Davies, Blum, whose government had fallen by this time, Herriot
and Avenol, the peace pavilion had been seen by three million visitors.^97
The pavilion was designed along simple lines and, in an echo of the
contours and patina of the Palais de Chaillot, was hemispherical in shape
and light in tone.^98 According to the guide to the exposition issued by
the Société pour le Développement du Tourisme, forty-two nations
participated in the exposition and it was the flags of these nations, and
not, as one report incorrectly stated, the flags of the fifty-eight members
of the LON, that were raised on the flat roof of the Peace Pavilion.^99
Displayed above the entrance to the building on its left-hand side were
the words International Peace Campaign and above the exit on its
(^97) Challet-Bailhache, ed., Paris et ses expositions universelles: architecture 1855– 1937 , 70,
74; Société pour le développement du tourisme, Exposition internationale arts et techniques,
Paris 1937, 28, and Rivoirard, ‘Le pacifism et la Tour de la Paix,’ 312, 314.
(^98) ‘The Star of Peace Shines over Paris: The Pavilion Which Calls on Men to Think and
Choose,’ in Arthur Mee, ed., The Children’s Newspaper, no. 966 (1937): 1–2, and Challet-
Bailhache, ed., Paris et ses expositions universelles: architecture 1855– 1937 , 70, 74.
(^99) Société pour le Développement du Tourisme, Exposition internationale arts et tech-
niques, Paris 1937, 28. See also Challet-Bailhache, ed., Paris et ses expositions universelles:
architecture 1855– 1937 , 74, and ‘The Star of Peace Shines over Paris,’ in Mee, ed., The
Children’s Newspaper, no. 966 (1937), 1. The author of the article ‘The Star of Peace
Shines over Paris’ incorrectly reported that the flags raised on the roof of the Peace Pavilion
were the flags of the LON.