276 J.-A. PEMBERTON
That the Bergen meeting was conducted with barely any ceremonial
pomp was not just an effect of the grave international situation. Condliffe
and the conference’s programme committee had issued clear instructions
to the Norwegian national committee that the number of receptions was
to be strictly limited. As Condliffe underlined in the report of the general
rapporteur, it was no accident that the conference was held in the calm
atmosphere of Bergen rather than in a grand city with all its distractions.^120
Most of the focus of the conference was on the general issue of the
confrontation between policies of economic nationalism and national
self-sufficiency on the one hand, and the globalising tendency of mod-
ern industrialism on the other. Condliffe lead the discussion throughout
and a summary of his views well conveys its overall tenor. In the course
of his interventions, Condliffe painted a dramatic picture of the tension
between nationalism and an expansionist modern industrialism, repre-
senting this tension as a combat between major forces in the context of
which nationalism currently was prevailing.^121
Condliffe well appreciated the pull of nationalism, observing that it is
based on ‘profound instincts in the human heart’: the ‘love of home, of
family and of country, a love “which dates from distant legends of the
past”.’ For this reason, Condliffe advised, one should take care not to
underestimate nationalism’s power. Yet, he added, the ‘forces which are
(^120) Société des Nations, Institut International de la Coopération Intellectuelle, Conférence
Permanente des Hautes Ḗtudes Internationales, XIIème Session, Bergen 1939—Les
Politiques Économiques et la Paix: Discours du Rapporteur General, M. J. B. Condliffe,
Professor of Commerce à l’Université de Londres, à la séance d’ouverture, le lundi, 28 août,
1939, Maison de Commerce et de Navigation, 2, AG 1-K-XII.13 UA. Due to the time con-
straints on the conference only the last two paragraphs of the opening speech that Condliffe
had prepared and had intended to give in full at the Bergen conference in his capacity gen-
eral rapporeur were delivered orally. International Studies Conference, Twelfth Session,
Economic Policies in Relation to World Peace: A Record of the Study Meetings Held in
Bergen from August 26 to 29, 1939, 93–5, IICI/9/23, UA.
(^121) Société des Nations, Institut International de la Coopération Intellectuelle,
Conférence Permanente des Hautes Ḗtudes Internationales, XIIème Session, Bergen
1939—Les Politiques Économiques et la Paix: Discours du Rapporteur, M. J. B. Condliffe,
Professor of Commerce à l’Université de Londres, à la séance d’ouverture, le lundi, 28
août, Maison de Commerce et de Navigation, 5–6, AG 1-K-XII.13. UA.
of that day in order to discuss modifications to the conference agenda.‘XIIe Session
de la Conférence permanente des hautes études internationales,’ Informations sur la
Coopération Intellectuelle, Coopération Intellectuelle, nos. 1–2 (1939): 6–13, 6, and Institut
International de Coopération Intellectuelle, L’Institut Internationale de la Coopération
Intellectuelle: 1925–1946, 288.