4 INTELLECTUAL COOPERATION IN WAR-TIME AND PLANS ... 421the promotion of international understanding. In the 1930s, the ICO’s
study of the role that popular media might play in this regard was
extended to include television. Nonetheless, a one-dimensional image
of the ICO remained entrenched. On June 17, 1946, in a letter sent
to Murray, who, it should be noted, had represented the ICIC at the
London Conference, Mayoux highlighted the poor reputation of the
ICO from the UNESCO point of view. In particular, Mayoux lamented
the fact that Needham (whom he described as an ‘attractive and power-
ful’ figure), did not know of the work that had been undertaken by the
ICO in the years dating from 1936 in relation to the sciences, by which
he meant the exact and natural sciences.^293
Sewell points out that Needham ‘had never heard of the...[IIIC] at
Cambridge during the twenties and early thirties’ in and that ‘when later
Needham did learn of its activities he was determined to see that the post-
war international scientific organization tendency avoided...[the IIIC’s]...
tendency toward “mandarinism,” toward aims “too vague, academic and
contemplative”’.^294
tHe ico And tHe Problem of neutrAlity
Yet even if those involved in the creation of UNESCO had had a greater
awareness of the nature and extent of the ICO’s work, there still may
have been a strong inclination to distance the new organisation from
the old. One obvious reason for this was the fact that the political fail-
ures associated with the League seemed to cast a pall over all the other
(^293) Mayoux to Murray, June 17, 1946, Correspondance avec le Président de la CICI (H.
Bergson, G. Murray), AG 1-IICI-A-I-16.
(^294) Sewell, UNESCO and World Politics, 94. Huxley entertained a similar conception of
UNESCO to that of Needham. See La Coopération Intellectuelle Internationale, nos. 1–2
(1946), 1. Huxley stated that he wanted to see UNESCO develop into a ‘really democratic
organisation, operating not only among the high intellectual spheres but in the minds of
men in general, and capable of establishing the case of a world culture. The place accorded
to science in the new organisation will allow for the introduction with profit, scientific meth-
ods in the new domains, social and political...The immediate task of UNESCO consists in
raising the standard of education and promoting scientific knowledge in the entire world.’
Huxley stated on being appointed to the position of director-general that UNESCO would
not be too ‘highbrow or academic’ but would respond to the vital interests of people the
world over. Julian Huxley, ‘The Future of UNESCO,’ Discovery: A Monthly Popular Journal
of Knowledge 72, no. 3 (1946): 72–3.