4 INTELLECTUAL COOPERATION IN WAR-TIME AND PLANS ... 357governing board of the GRC. Other relatively recent recruits to this
board were were Berber, Potter, Macadam and Condliffe this last
now being its chair.^21 Concerning the topic of ‘Dominant Political
Principles,’ Potter proposed that three experts should be invited to air
their views: Berber, Georges Scelle (professor of public international
law at the University of Paris, secretary general of the Academy of
International Law at The Hague and a participant in the ISC’s con-
ference on collective security in Paris in 1934 and in its conference on
peaceful change in 1937), and Zimmern. In regard to Berber, Potter
stated that it seemed ‘the best point to call upon Prof. Berber for a
contribution,’ adding that ‘I do not believe I need to argue that point
any further just now.’^22 In regard to the experience of the LON in
what was known in League circles as the technical field, Potter pro-
posed that McDougall be invited to direct a series of studies on what
Potter considered to be a topic of ‘exceptional importance’ and the
field where perhaps the ‘greatest success...[had been]...reaped by the
League.’^23
In the course of their subsequent exchanges on the expert stud-
ies, two points of contention arose between Potter and Bonnet. First,
Bonnet informed Potter that he was ‘somewhat alarmed’ that the selec-
tion of experts to address the LON’s work in the non-political field was
biased towards individuals residing in Geneva. Bonnet advised Potter
(^21) For the paper submitted by Francisco Vito to the session in Milan in 1932, see
Giovanni Gentile to Werner Picht, December 7, 1931 and the following attached paper:
‘Rapport preliminare per la conferenza internazionale sul tema “Les rapports du politique
et de l’économique en théorie et en pratique”’ by Francesco Vito. Conférence des insti-
tutions pour l’études scientifique des relations internationals, 1er Octobre 1931–31 mars
1932, AG 1-IICI-K-I-1.c. For Vito’s membership of the GRC’s governing body, see L.
Lederman, assistant-director of the Geneva Research Centre, to Bonnet, January 31,
1940, AG 1ICI-K-I-16.b. See also League of Nations, A Record of a First International
Study Conference on the State and Economic Life with Special Reference to International
Economic and Political Relations, Held at Milan on May 23–27, 1932, and Organised by
the International Institute of Intellectual Co-operation in Collaboration with the Italian
National Committee of Intellectual Co-operation (International Institute of Intellectual
Co-operation for the Conference of Institutions for the Scientific Study of International
Relations, 1932).
(^22) Potter to Bonnet, January 20, 1940, AG 1-IICI-K-I-24, UA.
(^23) Ibid., and Pitman B. Potter to Henri Bonnet, April 19, 1940, AG 1-IICI-K-I-24, UA.