2 PARIS, 1937: COLONIAL QUESTIONS AND PEACE 115Emblazoned on its base was the word PA X in letters that were more
than double the height of the average person. Due to its location on the
heights of the Trocadéro, the column was in the direct sight of the many
national pavilions camped in the gardens of the Palais de Chaillot and in
the Champs de Mars. One American newspaper report concerning the
opening day of the Monument de la Paix, observed the following: ‘The
Spaniards continue their murderous struggle. Britain races to re-arm.
The Nazis and Fascists belligerently keep the cauldron of war boil-
ing. Nevertheless, the Peace Towers rises bravely above the 1937 Paris
International Exposition, symbol of an elusive ideal.’^108
tHe montH of intellectuAl cooPerAtion
The promotion of intellectual cooperation and cultural exchange
amongst humanity was also central to the intentions of the exposi-
tion’s organisers.^109 It was in view of this that Herriot issued an invita-
tion on behalf of France to his colleagues on the ICIC, asking them to
participate in the exposition. It was an invitation that the ICIC readily
accepted, not least because of the opportunity it afforded the ICIC to
show-case its work in front of the masses.^110 To this end, the General
Commission of the exposition placed at the disposal of the ICIC nine
galleries on the upper floor of the east wing of the Palais de Tokyo.^111
It was there on June 11 that Herriot, in the presence of a number of
French and foreign dignitaries, opened an exhibition composed of lav-
ish displays aimed at demonstrating, textually, graphically and symboli-
cally, the reality and necessity of a société des esprits. It should be noted
that the expression société des esprits had been coined by the French poet
and essayist and from 1931 the president of the ICIC’s newly created
(^108) ‘Peace Tower Rises Mid War Scare,’ The Clearfield Progress (PA), June 9, 1937, and
‘The Star of Peace Shines over Paris,’ in Mee, ed., The Children’s Newspaper, no. 966
(1937), 1. See also Challet-Bailhache, ed., Paris et ses expositions universelles: architecture
1855 – 1937 , 70, 74, 91, and Rivoirard, ‘Le pacifism et la Tour de la Paix,’ 310.
(^109) Lemoine, preface to Lemoine, ed., Paris 1937: Cinquantenaire de l’Exposition inter-
nationale des arts et des techniques dans la vie moderne, 14.
(^110) ‘Intellectual Co-operation and the Paris Exhibition 1937,’ in League of Nations,
International Institute of Intellectual Co-operation, 1937 , 139–44.
(^111) Société pour le Développement du Tourisme, Exposition internationale arts et tech-
niques, Paris 1937, 91.