2 PARIS, 1937: COLONIAL QUESTIONS AND PEACE 139declaration, Sébastian Charléty, rector of the University of Paris and
chair of the French unit of the ISC, namely, the Commission française
des hautes études internationales, in his capacity as president of the con-
ference, delivered an address of welcome. In the course of this address,
Charléty noted that for the first time the conference had been graced
by the presence of a Brazilian group and by representatives from China,
Greece, Mexico and Uruguay. He pointed out that 150 individuals had
registered to attend the conference, that these individuals came from
twenty-four different countries and that they belonged to ‘various civili-
zations’. In regard to the subject of the conference, Charléty noted that
it was ‘written in the English phrase “Peaceful Change”,’ a phrase which,
he added, although ‘difficult to translate into French,’ signified for the
purpose of the conference the aim of not repressing war but preventing
it. This aim, Charléty pronounced, was ‘very ambitious.’^183
In a speech of reply, Lange conveyed a similarly lofty understanding
of the role of the conference. He noted that an almost ‘thrilling inter-
est’ was attached to the studies that those present were about to under-
take, adding that the question of peaceful change was ‘at the heart of
the preoccupation of every man and woman who cares about the future
of humanity.’^184 After a speech by Bourquin in his capacity as general
rapporteur, the inaugural meeting was closed by Sarraut who extended
a sincere welcome to the confrères on behalf of the French Republic.
It will be recalled that Sarraut, whom Charléty insisted in his address
had been the inspiration behind the formation of the French commit-
tee to study Pacific problems, had been the leader of the French dele-
gation to the conference held by the IPR in 1936 at Yosemite. In his
speech in Paris, after having observed that the cause of moral disarma-
ment (a cause for which the ICO had laboured some years earlier against
the background of the Conference for the Reduction and Limitation of
Armaments), was a necessary prelude to material disarmament, Sarraut
proceeded to call attention to the Yosetmite conference.^185 Sarraut
pointed out that he had taken part in an international conference in the
United States in the previous year and that this conference had discussed
(^183) International Studies Conference, Peaceful Change: Procedures, Population, Raw
Materials, Colonies, 591, 593–94.
(^184) Ibid., 594–95. Christian L. Lange was standing in for Lytton at the inaugural meet-
ing of the 1937 session of the ISC as the latter had been unable to attend it.
(^185) Ibid., 591, 604–05.