4 INTELLECTUAL COOPERATION IN WAR-TIME AND PLANS ... 411Bonnet and Cassin), eventually retired from its campaign on behalf of
the IIIC.^253 In the end, the French delegation simply expressed the wish
that a new Paris-based organisation would make use of ‘the contacts, the
experience and the documentation’ of its predecessor.^254
The question of the title of the new organisation was also a matter of
dispute. The English translation of the French title for the organisation,
namely, United Nations Organisation of Intellectual Cooperation, did
not enthuse the British and the Americans delegations. They contended
that although intellectual cooperation is important, the new organisa-
tion’s ‘role must not stop with the élite.’^255
In relation to this point, Jean-Jacques Mayoux, a Sorbonne profes-
sor who assumed the role of interim director of the IIIC in February
1945, pointed out that the translation of the French word intellectuel
into English as intellectual, was unfortunate since in English the word
intellectual had the connotation of cerebral. Mayoux observed that by
contrast, the French word intellectuel is ‘synthetic’: it encompasses the
‘trinity’ of culture, education and science. Mayoux thought that this
last point explained why certain powers misunderstood the ICO’s work
and consequently failed to provide it with the support that it needed
to undertake its many tasks.^256 However, in the context of the London
Conference, the term intellectuel continued to be interpreted by many
English-speaking participants in a restrictive sense. Indeed, the word
(^253) Sewell, UNESCO and World Politics, 72. See also Cowell, ‘Planning the Organisation
of UNESCO, 1942–1946: A Personal Record,’ 230, and Laves and Thomson, UNESCO:
Purpose, Progress, Prospects, 3, 25.
(^254) Sewell, UNESCO and World Politics, 77.
(^255) See Laves and Thomson, UNESCO: Purpose, Progress, Prospects, 7, 28. For the lack of
British and American enthusiasm for the proposed French title for the nascent UNESCO,
see Sewell, UNESCO and World Politics, 77.
(^256) Jean Jacques Mayoux, ‘La Coopération Intellectuelle Internationale: UNESCO,’ La
Coopération Intellectuelle Internationale 1, no. 2 (1946): i–xxiii, vi. French officials did not
see any inconvenience in there being an English language title for the organisation that
included the words education and culture. However, in a letter attached to its proposal
and addressed to the British foreign minister, the French foreign minister maintained that
the title ‘organisation de Coopération Intellectuelle’ was more in keeping with French
‘thought and the demands of the French language.’ See also Coopération Intellectuelle
Internationale (b) (octobre–novembre 1945), 43. For Mayoux’s interim status and
appointment, ‘Sommaire de numéro spécial,’ Coopération Intellectuelle Internationale
(octobre–novembre 1945), and Renoliet, L’Unesco oubliée, 161.