5 THE POST-WAR DECLINE OF THE INTERNATIONAL STUDIES CONFERENCE 451and in connection with this advice he reiterated the point that the IPR
had recently ruled to ‘reduce the attendance at its study meetings strictly
to experts.’ In concluding his visit, Holland announced that the IPR
would be represented at the administrative meeting of the ISC later
that year, a point on which Vranek noted in his report, Holland was
‘emphatic’.^85
unesco And tHe internAtionAl studies conference
The first General Conference of UNESCO took place in Paris between
the November 19 and December 10, 1946. It was held at what was
formerly the Hôtel Majestic on avenue Kléber, a short distance from
the Arc de Triomphe. The hotel had recently served as the headquar-
ters of the German Military Government and the Gestapo during the
Occupation and as the American Base Headquarters after the liberation.
Following the departure of the Americans, the name Hôtel Majestic was
removed from the building’s door to be replaced with the name of its
new occupant. Laura Vitray, an American journalist visiting what was
now called UNESCO House, saw irony in the hotel’s latest incarnation,
noting that the civilians who had established themselves there were the
‘direct antithesis to Hitlerian notions of a “master race,” being in fact
of as many races, complexions and national backgrounds as...[one]...
care[s] to imagine’.^86
Forty-four nations were represented by around two hundred del-
egates at the first UNESCO Conference. Present also were observers
from many international organisations, both governmental and private,
among them being Mayoux, who represented the IIIC, Lévy, who rep-
resented the IPR and Vranek who represented the ISC, this last hav-
ing rejoined the staff of the IIIC following his period of service in the
Czechoslovakian army.^87
(^85) Ibid.
(^86) Laura Vitray, ‘UNESCO: Adventure in Understanding,’ Free World 12, no. 4 (1946):
23–8, 23, 28. See also Cowell, ‘Planning the Organisation of UNESCO, 1942–1946: A
Personal Record,’ 230.
(^87) International Studies Conference, Verbatim report of the XIIIth Administrative ses-
sion, December 16 and 17, 1946, at the Centre d’études de politique étrangère de Paris,
IICI-K-XIV-12, UA, 5, 89. See also Jir F. Vranek to Malcolm W. Davis, October 29, 1946,
AG 1-IICI-K-V-2.d, UA.