404 J.-A. PEMBERTON
of exclusive nationalism’.^227 He insisted that that it was ‘essential to the
preservation of civilisation to return to the conceptions of international-
ism’ and ‘pleaded for an international structure in which even the smallest
nation could be sure of its place.’^228
In November 1941, members of the London International Assembly
combined with members of the Council for Education in World Citizenship
to form a Joint Commission for Education in World Citizenship under the
chairmanship of Murray in order to undertake a study of the ‘place of edu-
cation, science, and learning in post-war reconstruction.’^229 The British
Government sent observers from the British Board of Education and the
British Council (a body established by Royal Charter several years earlier in
order to coordinate the dissemination of British culture abroad), to witness
the Joint Commission’s proceedings. The ensuing report, which was issued
in March 1943 and which was entitled Education and the United Nations,
recommended that the United Nations ‘should agree to establish as soon as
may be practicable an International Organisation for Education,’ a recom-
mendation that was later submitted to the Allied governments and which
quickly became a staple of wider British discussions concerning post-war
reconstruction in Europe.^230
(^227) Jan Mararyk, 1941, quoted in ‘Inaugural Meeting of the London International
Assembly,’ Keesing’s Record of World Events, 4808.
(^228) Ibid.
(^229) Laves and Thomson, UNESCO: Purpose, Progress, Prospects, 19. On the British
Council, see ‘La Conférence des ministres de l’éducation à Londres,’ numéro spécial
Coopération Intellectuelle Internationale (octobre–novembre, 1945): 57–60.
(^230) Sewell, UNESCO and World Politics, 35. The Joint Commission for Education in
World Citizenship submitted on July 2, 1943, a very favourable report on the work of
Intellectual Cooperation between the wars. See Jan Kolasa, International Intellectual
Cooperation: The League Experience and the Beginnings of UNESCO (Wroclaw: Zakład
Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, 1962), 133. The Joint Commission’s report on Intellectual
Cooperation was authored by Gwilym Davies a member of the Council for Education in
World Citizenship.
Ethiopia, Fighting France, Great Britain, Greece, the Netherlands, India, Luxembourg,
New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, United States of America and Yugoslavia.
Brazil and Mexico were later invited to join. The USSR sent observers to its meetings. In
addition to education the Assembly examined such issues as ‘War Aims and Peace Aims’;
‘The Present Position in Enemy-Occupied Countries’; ‘Point III of the Atlantic Charter’;
‘The Role of Small States in the Post-War World’; ‘The Work of the International Labour
Organisation’; ‘The Trial of War Criminals’; ‘Unemployment’ and ‘The Situation in
America’ (ibid.). For an account of the meeting see also ‘Inaugural Meeting of the London
International Assembly,’ Keesing’s Record of World Events 4 (September 1941): 4808.