408 J.-A. PEMBERTON
out that four major conditions had to be met if there were to be intellec-
tual cooperation in the future:
First, a new world agency in this field must be stronger, larger, and well-
financed, Second, it should deal comprehensively with all cultural aspects
of international life. Third, the educational problem must be tackled
directly, along with the general cultural problem. Fourth, an international
agency in this field must possess a substantial measure of autonomy and yet
be legally and consciously included in the general framework of interna-
tional society.^243PrePArAtions for unesco
Following the endorsement of the French proposal at San Francisco,
the British Government on July 1, 1945, announced that a general con-
ference on the subject of international cooperation in the educational
and cultural fields would be held London between November 1 and
16.^244 Representatives of forty-four governments and observers from
seven international organisations attended this conference which was
held at the headquarters of the Institution of Civil Engineers on Great
George Street near to Westminster Abbey. Cowell, who served as tech-
nical adviser to the British delegation at the conference, applauded the
Institution of Civil Engineers for its generosity in lending the confer-
ence the use of its headquarters. He later pointedout that due to bomb
damage, there was at that time simply no other venue available in central
London large enough to accommodate a gathering of the size of what
would turn out to be UNESCO’s constituent assembly.^245
Under consideration at the conference were the plans for a United
Nations’ Educational and Cultural Organisation (UNECO) put forward
(^243) William G. Carr, Only by Understanding: Education and International Organisation
(New York: Foreign Policy Association, 1945), 39.
(^244) Sewell, UNESCO and World Politics, 69. Present at the London Conference in
November 1945 were Clement Attlee the British prime minister, Hu Shih the Chinese phi-
losopher and China’s ambassador to the United States, Archibald Macleish, a ‘poet and
scholar, formerly Librarian of Congress and Assistant Secretary of State,’ Murray, Zimmern
and two individuals who would serve in succession as directors of UNESCO: Julian Huxley
and Mexico’s Jaime Torres Bodet (ibid.).
(^245) Cowell, ‘Planning the Organisation of UNESCO, 1942–1946,’ 223. See also Laves
and Thomson, UNESCO: Purpose, Progress, Prospects, 3–4.