240 J.-A. PEMBERTON
on peaceful change was regarded by the foundation, that Walker had also
attended the preparatory symposium on peaceful change which was held
at the GRC in May 1937: the ‘Conference of Solutions.’^3
In a letter sent from his law firm in Wall Street in November 1937,
John Foster Dulles informed Walker that he felt the ‘voluminous’ mate-
rials submitted to the conference in Paris fell short of attaining the
ideal of research work of a ‘high order’ and complained that the topic
selected for the conference ‘was so broadly developed and interpreted
that it was impossible to have any adequate discussion’ within the time-
frame set for the conference. The actual conference arrangements, he
observed, were not ‘conducive to an intimate and useful exchange of
ideas.’ Presumably with the question of revision of the status quo in
mind, he further observed that participants tended to adopt the per-
spective of their national governments and avoid discussion along ‘lines
which might suggest the desirability of a change in their government’s
policies.’ Dulles concluded his critique of the conference in stating that
although he thought the general conception of the ISC was an excellent
one and although he did not want to see the conference abandoned, he
doubted whether the results that it produced warranted the money that
was required to maintain it. Dulles thought that further funding should
only be directed at the ISC if its ‘defects and limitations’ were overcome.^4
In this context, it worth drawing attention to a letter sent in the fol-
lowing year to Bonnet by William O. Scroggs, the latter being the secre-
tary of the American Coordinating Committee for International Studies.
This committee, which first met on May 4, 1936 and which was finan-
cially supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, was established on the
proposal of the CFR in light of the decision of the CFR to resign from
direct membership of the ISC. Despite its resignation from the confer-
ence, CFR maintained an association with the ISC as it was represented
on American Coordinating Committee as was, it should be noted, the
Foreign Policy Association and the American Council of the IPR. It is
also noteworthy that the secretariat of the American Coordinating
Committee was located at the headquarters of the CFR: The Council
House, 45 East 65th Street, New York City. In the aforementioned
(^3) Persons Participating in the Conference on Solutions, May 21 and 22, 1937, AG-IICI-
K-I-16.a, UA.
(^4) John Foster Dulles to Dr. Sydnor H. Walker, 17 November 1937, Fondation
Rockefeller, à partir du 1er septembre 1937, AG-IICI-K-I-4.b, UA.