3 CONFERENCES AT PRAGUE AND BERGEN AND THE LOOMING WAR 241letter, Scroggs informed Bonnet that neither Dulles nor Shotwell were
‘disposed’ to collaborate with the IIIC in the production of the ‘coop-
erative volume’ which had been proposed by Bonnet and which was
supposed to address the following subject: the ‘political and psycholog-
ical factors which condition procedures’ of peaceful change. It should
be recalled here that Shotwell had chaired the discussion of peaceful
change at the 1936 session of the ISC in Madrid. He was also a mem-
ber of the American delegation to its 1937 session in Paris. By way of
explaining the attitude of Dulles and Shotwell in regard to the proposed
volume, Scroggs stated the following: ‘It was the general consensus of
the [American] group that a collection of brief and miscellaneous papers
on so broad and important a subject would not be a fruitful undertaking
and would not provide a basis for adequate treatment. As Secretary of the
Committee I was instructed to report this decision to you.’^5
Another American who participated in the Paris conference
was Charles K. Leith, a professor geology at the University of
Wisconsin. He informed Walker that in his view the conference placed
too much emphasis on protocol and was ‘heavily institutionalized’.
Observing that the foregrounding of so many ‘big names’ in the confer-
ence’s publicity material was ‘apt to bring a smile,’ Leith told Walker that
(^5) Wm. O. Scroggs to Bonnet, 20 April 1938, Peaceful change: Groupes internation-
aux d’études (Procédures), jusqu’au 1er mai 1939, AG 1-IICI-K-I-18.q, UA. William
O. Scroggs also stated in his letter to Bonnet the following: ‘While you may not regard
this as good news, I am happy to inform you that our Committee is undertaking to
cooperate whole-heartedly in other features of the program for the next study meeting
of the Conference. For some time our work has been retarded because of delay in com-
pleting certain plans for the revision of the Committee’s working methods. A satisfactory
plan has at last been worked out and adopted, and the Rockefeller Foundation has just
placed new funds at the disposal of the Committee to finance the work during 1938 and
- We are now ready, therefore, to move forward at full speed.’ See also Leo Gross
to Maurice Bourquin, 3 May 1938, AG 1-IICI-K-I-18.q, UA, and Scroggs to Bonnet,
13 May 1936, and attached memorandum on the Plan for the Organization of an
American Coordinating Committee to Replace the Council on Foreign Relations as the
American Member of the International Studies Conference, Conférence permanente des
hautes études internationales, 1er novembre-1935–18 novembre 1937, AG 1-IICI-K-I-1.u,
UA. For Shotwell’s role at Madrid and his presence at Paris, see respectively, Bourquin, ed.,
Collective Security, 24, and International Studies Conference, Peaceful Change: Procedures,
Population, Raw Materials, Colonies, 630.