4 INTELLECTUAL COOPERATION IN WAR-TIME AND PLANS ... 403be done to bring together for purposes of study and discussion people
drawn from wider circles, who would almost certainly have some share
in deciding the future course of their country,’ a view which was subse-
quently endorsed by members of some of the Allied governments.^222
It was to this end that the British LNU set up a preparatory com-
mittee chaired by Lytton. This committee first met on July 8, 1941,
whereupon it proceeded to lay the basis of what would be known as
the London International Assembly. The committee decided at the
same meeting that the assembly should seek to foster mutual under-
standing between Great Britain and the Allied and Associated Nations
of ‘each other’s history, economic development, institutions, way of life
and national aspirations’ and ‘consider the principles of post-war pol-
icy and the application of those principles to national and international
affairs.’^223 The committee stressed that the assembly did not advocate
any particular policy, was completely independent of government and
was to serve as a forum of study and the ‘free exchange of views.’^224 The
committee also sought to ensure that the assembly was as ‘representative
as possible of all sections of opinion’ among those who were committed
to the war effort in the Allied and Associated Nations.^225
The London International Assembly was finally established at a meeting
on September 15, 1941, by which time its membership numbered 189. At
the meeting, Cecil was elected president. René Cassin, the Fighting France
Commissioner for Justice and Public Instruction, deputy-delegate to the
LON Assembly from 1924 to 1935 and member of the Commission
française de coordination des hautes études internationales, and Jan
Masaryk, foreign minister and deputy prime minister of Czechoslovakia,
were elected as two of its four honorary vice-presidents.^226 In a speech at
the meeting, Masaryk attacked the ‘vulgar goose stepping extravagance
(^222) Cecil, ‘The London International Assembly,’ 194.
(^223) Ibid.
(^224) Ibid.
(^225) Ibid. The general approach of the London International Assembly to recruitment to
its ranks was to ask one or two individuals from each country to draw up a list of candidates
for the consideration of the assembly’s preparatory committee. Importantly, the chosen
candidates were to vote at the assembly as individuals.
(^226) Ibid., 195. The other two honorary vice-presidents of the London International
Assembly were Charalambos Simopoulos, the Greek minister in London, and August
Zaleski, the president of the Civil Chancellery of the president of the Polish Republic.
Among the countries represented were Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Czechoslovakia,