VOLUME III-No II

GEORGIE BERNARD SHAW : July 26, 1856-November 2, 1950

THIS issue of the"Courier"is dedicated to the Universal Declaration ofHuman Rights, adopted December 10, 1948. It is also the first to appearsince the death of George Bernard Shaw, at the age of 94. The relation

between one of humanity's noblest documents and the life and work of oneof history's literary giants is certainly complex and certainly controversial,but-just as certainly-it exists. We merely note that Shaw is the man whosaid :

"All improvement is founded on tolerance...""Religion is the only real motive force in the world ; but what you fellows

don't understand is that you must get a man through his own religion andnot through yours..."

"A day's work is a day's work, neither more nor less, and the man whodoes it needs a day's sustenance, a night's repose, and due leisure, whether hebe painter or ploughman."

What Shaw called"the incident of death"came to him after a life inwhich he said :

"This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourselfas a mighty one ; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on thescrap heap ; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clodof ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itselfto making you happy."

Shaw wrote in English and his works were read in Arabic, Spanish, Italian,French, Polish, German and Russian ; Turkish and Chinese ; Hindi, Bengali,Urdu, Gudjerati, Tamil and Punjabi and many others. In all of those lan-guages, men and women will have their own way of saying what Shaw saidof a departed friend :

"It's too bad of him to do this."

DECEMBER 195QPRICE : 10 Cents (U. S.). 6 Pence (U. K.), or 20 Franc ! (FRANCE).

UNESCO COURIER-Page 2 DECEMBER 1950

UNESCO'S Executive Board, meet-ing in Paris, last month, unan-imously re-affirmed that theOrganization, within its field of

competence, will give all possible as-sistance to the action of the UnitedNations in Korea, and authorizedMr. Jaime Torres Bodet, the Director-General, to continue to participate inthis action, including the work of theUnited Nations Specialized Agences,who may be called upon to frame along-term reconstruction plan forKorea.

The Board authorized Mr. TorresBodet to incur the expenditures in-volved in giving effect to this pro-gramme and to furnish, at the requestof the United Nations, such services,advice and any other types of aid asmay be required by the Unified Com-mand or any United Nations missionin Korea.The Board at its previous meetinghad approved the opening of an initialcredit of $ n5, 000 for the re-establish-ment of teaching in Korea and for aneducational programme specifically de-signed to make known the work of theUnited Nations and the principles ofcollective security.

The Director-General, in his reportto the Board, made reference toUnesco's support of United Nationsaction in Korea.

Educational experts are collaborat-ing on special pamphlets which will bepublished in three editions-English,French and Spanish. Different pam-phlets will be issued to three separateage-groups : 1) secondary school ;2) university students ; 3) adult educ-ation classes.

"ONE WORLD"MAP

THE Bureau of Current Affairs inLondon has drafted two projectsfor school wall charts accom-

panied by explanatory leaflets. Thefirst is a world map on a projection

designed to show the idea of a unitedworld ; the second is a graphic repre-sentation of the problems of maintain-ing peace and the ways in whichvarious specialized agencies of theUnited Nations are striving to promoteconditions favourable to peace. Thesemaps are flexible in design and can beadapted not only to educational needsand to methods of teaching in dif-ferent countries, but also to changesin world conditions and events.

In response to the Executive Board'sappeal to Member States, to NationalCommissions and to non-governmentalorganizations, Unesco has receivednumerous indications of support.

The Swedish government and theSwedish Committee for Unesco broad-cast the Board's appeal to arouse pub-lic interest and to obtain assistanceand contributions to the action ofUnesco on behalf of the Koreans.

INTERN TONAL"WHELPING HANDS"

AMONG the non-governmental in-ternational organizations whichresponded to the Board's appeal,

the Boy Scouts International Bureauannounced that it will endeavour to

re-establish its Korean branch whichwas very active before hostilities.

The International Congresses ofModern Architecture expressed itswish to collaborate with Unesco andwill provide a list of the most qualifiedarchitects in Japan for the work ofreconstruction. This organization hasalso declared its willingness to helpUnesco in all general matters thatpertain to Korean aid.

The International Union of the Ca-tholic Women's Leagues has asked itsvarious organizations to help the civ-ilian population of Korea.

The World Organization for EarlyChildhood Education proposed toprovide both material aid, in the formof educational material, toys, etc., andtechnical aid in the form of expertadvice on teaching, school reconstruc-tion, training of teachers, etc. Itsvarious national committees have beennotified and a request has been madeto send in all data and suggestionsthat might help the Koreans. Thisorganization has also authorized aKorean specialist in pre-school educa-tion to furnish a report on the edu-cational needs of his country.

The Director-General, in his reportto the Board painted a vivid pictureof the state of teaching in Korea andits history.

Educational problems, he declared,

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THE people of Germany will be ableto pia)"an increasingl)'active partin Unesco's work and make a

greater contribution to international co-operation in the fields of education,science and culture through the forma-tion of a German Committee for Unes-co activities, in Frankfort, last month.

Germany thus becomes the first non-member state of Unesco to set up arepresentative group whose compositionand functions compare with those ofthe National Commissions formed inmember states of the Organization.A) though the German Committee wiìlnot have the official international sta-tus of a National Commission, it willneverthe) ess be able to contribute effec-tively towards the achievement of Unes-co's aims. and its work will be watchedwith interests in other countries.

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Quiapo, Manila.Portugal : Uniao Portuguesa de Imprensa, 198 Rua de Sao Bento, 3< Esq., Lisbon.Sweden : A. B. C. E. Fritzes Kungl. Hovbokhandel, Fredsgatan 2 ; Stockholm.Switzerland : French speaking cantons : Librairie de I'Universite. 22-24. rue de Ro-

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Artigas 1320, Montevideo.. Venezuela : Editoria".'\ndres Bello", Caracas.* Under negotiation.

The sixty members of the Committeeinclude prominent men and women andrepresentatives of organizations in thefields of education, SCience and culture,representatives from the federal andstate governments and from women'sorganizations and trade unions. A simi-lar committee for \\'estern Berlin wasalso set up last month.

Three International Centres

THE constitution of the new GermanCommittee, whose president isProfessor Erbe, Rector of the Uni-

versity of Tubingen, pledges its mem-bers-representatives of all the largeand influential German organizations-to work towards the accomplishment ofL'nesco's aims.

Amok/ the projects for Germany,which Unesco has prepared for i951,are the setting up of three internationalcentres-for the Social Sciences, fouryouth activities, and for pedagogicalwork. The newly formed German Com-mittee should be able to give substan-tial help in co-ordinating the work ofthe three centres.

1t is planned to finance the projectby contributions from private and pu-blic funds in Unesco member states-outside normal Unesco budget contribu-tions-as well as from German sources.The first contribution for this work hasalready been made by the Lebanon.

The international character of thethree institutes will be reflected in thechoice of staff, the composition'of thegoverning bodies and in the types ofproblems with which they will deal.Their activities will include the organi-zation of studies, conferences, exhibi-tions and seminars and they will workparticularly to help German youth inovercoming the manv problems facing ittoday.

will probably be as difficult as anyothers that the Republic of Korea andthe United Nations will be called uponto solve, but a solution must be foundif this country is to return to itsnormal way of life and continue itsdevelopment. Present-day teaching inKorea is the result of forty years ofJapanese rule. It was planned so thatno more than a few fortunate Koreanscould continue advanced studies orreceive training as teachers ; whilemajor benefits were provided for theJapanese who were living either tem-porarily or permanently in Korea.

SCHOOL SYSTEMRYE-ORGANIZED

IN 1945, when the Allied militarygovernment took control of educa-tion, Japanese was the only lang-

uage spoken in the schools ; theadministrative personnel, the collegeheads, the principal teachers andinspectors were, almost without ex-ception, of Japanese nationality.

The military government, duringits four years control of SouthernKorea instituted various radicaleducational experts and adopted by thegovernment of South Korea only a fewmonths before hostilities broke out.Since 1945, the percentage of thenational budget devoted to educationhas increased from 3. 6% to nearly 10% ;the number of children attendingprimary schools has risen from ap-proximately one million and a half totwo millions and a half, and the num-ber of pupils attending secondaryschools, from 62, 000 to 225, 000.

Upon the outbreak of hostilities,there was a serious lack of teachersand qualified administrative personnel,the number of teachers available fortraining being quite insufficient ; books,particularly books in Korean, were invery short supply, since almost all theprinting works were in North Korea.

Mr. Torres Bodet emphasized thatthe havoc and destruction of thepresent war have probably destroyedall the progress made during the lastfive years and that the Korean Repu-blic, unaided, would be in no positionto re-organize its system of teaching,least of all to develop or improve it.

One thing is clear, he pointed out,that only an action undertaken on alarge-scale by the United Nations canhelp the Koreans to restore theireducational life.

NINETEEN NATIONS SIGN'

UNESCO-SPONSORED TRADE

PACT AT LAKE SUCCESS

t s this issue of the Courierwent to press, 19 nationshad signed the Unesco-

sponsored agreement removingcustoms barriers to the move-ment of books, newspapers anda wide range of educational andscientific materials across theirborders.

These signatures were obtain-ed at Lake Success on November22, when the pact Iwas openedfor signature.

The agreement will promote"a better understanding anct HiM-tual I'espect between states,"saidr. N. Secretary-General TrygveLie.

THE MAKING OF THE

FIRST PEACE PIPE

MM HE Couher recency received a pho-tograph of the drawing reproducedhere from Miss Clarice Johnstone,

Lady Principal of Nelson Girls'College,Nelson, New Zealand.

Miss Johnstone wrote :"Early this yearyou published an Indian Folk Tale,'TheMaking of the First Peace Pipe'. I usedthis in a peace talk to the girls of my Col-lege on Anzac Day, April 25th. The storyinspired one of them, Angela Grace(16 years) to attempt a'black and white'illustration. As you published the storywhich, incidently, made a deep impres-sion, I wondered whether you would careto print the picture in the Courier."

The story published in the Courier wasone of a series-'Children's Stories forPeace"-collected from all parts of theworld by Unesco's Radio Division. Itstheme was that the best way to settle dis-putes is to sit down and talk things over.

The drawing made by Angela Grace isan appropriate illustration for the messageof United Nations Day this year-"ThereShall Be Peace"-and is reproduced herein the hope of promoting just such feelingsas the young artist has so well expressed.

WCEM8Ei'1950 Page : 3-UNESCO COLHUER

"The Start of a Great Mission"

Extracts from an address delive-red by M. Jaime Torres Bodet,Director-General of Unesco, on theoccasion of the fifth anniversaryof the proclamation of the UnescoCharter, on November 6.

UNESCO is five years old today,and I have asked you to joinwith Us in celebrating the

anniversary..In a human life, the first five

years reach only early childhood. Inhistorical time, they are but a briefepisode. Yet for Unesco, they havebeen the start of a great mission, thebeginning of a task which affectsmillions of men not only throughouttheir lives but unto the lives of theirchildren and their descendants yetunborn. And it has been with faithand determination that we havemade a contribution, which we hopewill be lasting, to the progress ofthe world.

Ignorance was our first and great-est enemy. Even now, millions ofilliterates still make up a majorityof the world's population. To con-quer mutual misunderstanding byspreading knowledge was and still isour major battle.

We sought the lessons of ex-perience. Thus the pilot project ofthe Marbial Valley in the island ofHaiti was launched. Hope seemedbanished from this valley : poverty,illness, ignorance reigned there. Butnow schools, hospitals and local in-dustries have been created, andamong the inhabitants the will to livehas replaced resignation to fate.

And the experience permitted usto work out and apply a tried andtested technique applicable else-where.

To Remove Mutual ignorance

HOWEVER, at another stage of theevolution of the problems, mu-tual tolerance and mutual res-

pect among men depend upon theremoval of mutual ignorance ; andthe first step is providing opportun-

ities for the meeting of those whoare or who will be their intellectualguides. Thus We have fostered thecreation of study groups or seminarswhich from time to time bringtogether or into relationship with oneanother either teachers or the re-presentatives of all metal activities.On the same plane of ideas, wehave drawn up under the title"Study Abroad"an internationaldirectory of scholarships and ex-changes of persons. And on ahigher plane, in order to makeavailable universally the advantagesof research everywhere, we have setup in various parts of the world sixregional centres of scientific research,which regularly exchange the resultsof their work.

But in order that the life of themind might become a link leading tothe universal fraternity which is ouraim, we also had to make sure thatno prejudice would at the very startcontradict this hope. Therefore, lastJuly, the most eminent biologists, so-ciologists and geneticians, broughttogether by Unesco, solemnly affirm-ed that"racial discrimination has noscientific foundation in biologicalfact."The welcome given to thisproclamation of equality was univer-sal.

MIND, alas remains dependentupon matter, and when condi-tions of existence are too bad,

it is vain to advise men to educatethemselves. We cannot close our eyesto certain of these conditions of exis-tence, and we must undertake tochange them even while we, at thesame time, make knowledge accessi-ble. That is why we have participat-ed, to the extent of our competencyand our means, in the great plan oftechnical assistance to which theUnited Nations is denoting$ 20. 000. 000.

In this connexion, we are sendingto countries whose governments re-quest them missions of experts toteach the techniques which lead toimprovement of the material and

moral condition of the disinherited. Ishall mention as examples of ourwork in this field only the activitiesof our representatives in India andEcuador, and call attention to thefact that twelve other countries havealready asked our help.

A Door To The Future

THE perspectives which I havet just shown you are not inusoru.I have merely lifted a corner of

the veil that hides the future. Theseideas have already taken on subs-tance.

Indeed, our last General Con-ference adopted a resolution which,I hope, will open a door to the future.Here it is :"The General Conferenceresolves that the Director-Generalbe authorized to develop over andbeyond the regular programme ofUnesco certain extraordinary pro-jects capable of making a large-scalecontribution to world peace and se-curity, in the hope that such majorprojects might become of suchconsequence as to warrant specialfinancing from sources outside theregular budget."

On the basis of this resolution, wegot to work and, profiting from theexperience we have acquired, weelaborated a big project which putsinto effect the fundamental ideaswhich I have set forth to you.This project was given preliminaryapproval by our Executive Boardwhich has just finished its meeting.It will be submitted for finalapproval to our General Conferencewhich will meet in Paris next year.

(Details of this world-wide fun-damental education project aregiven elsewhere on this page).

At the end of this road which weare tracing and in which others willfollow after us, there is the immensehope that exists in every man, inevery family, in every nation, thehope that men's reason and in-telligence, finally mature and en-lightened, will be able to transforminto reality-peace among men.

THE appointment of Dr. John W.Tailor, President of the Univer-- L sity of Louisville, Kentucky, inthe United States, as Deputy

Director-General of Unesco wasannounced last month by M. JaimeTorres Bodet, Director-General of theOrganization.

Dr. Taylor, who will take up hisduties with Unesco on January 1, 1951,replaces Dr. Walter H. C. Laves, wholeft the Organization last June.

Dr. Taylor, a distinguished Ameri-can educator, who was born in Co-vington, Kentucky, in 1906, has hadwide international experience. Hespent six years in Europe, between1925 and 1937. In addition to Co-lumbia University, New York City,where he obtained the degree of Doc-tor of Philosophy, he studied at theUniversities of Paris, London, Berlinand Vienna.

His career as a teacher includedposts at Teachers College and NewCollege, Columbia University ; Louisia-na State University ; and the KaiserFriedrich Realgymnasium. B e r 1 i n-Neukolln. He was also directorof foreign study at Columbia. He hasbeen awarded the United States Le-gion of Merit and the French Legionof Honour.

Pioneer Work In Community

Education

DO. TAYLOR has been President ofthe University of Louisville since1947. Under his administration,

the University was the first in any of

Dr. JOHN W. TAYLOR

the American southern states to sup-press the racial barrier to the admis-

sion of students. Negro students wereadmitted to the graduate and profes-sional schools of the University ; andunder-graduate students will also beaccepted at the end of the presentacademic session.

Under Dr. Taylor's guidance, theUniversity has carried out importantpioneer work in the field of com-munity educational development, andadult education in.'NeighbourhoodColleges". This included the establ-ishment, in co-operation with theLouisville public school system andpublic library, of a radio station whichbroadcasts educational and culturalprogrammes for general and class-room listeners. Subsequently, the Uni-versity Theatre of the Air was createdin co-operation with a major nationalbroadcasting company. Six otherAmerican universities joined withLouisville in a network linked with150 radio broadcasting and televisionstations in various parts of the UnitedStates.

KOREA AND THE UNITED NATIONS

THE history of the United Nations Security Council's debates andaction in the Korean question during the period Tune 25 to Septem-ber 7 has now been retold in"Korea and the United Nations"recent.

ly published by the U. N. Department of Public Information..This publication gives an overall picture of United Nations action in

support of collective security as it was described in articles which appearedeach fortnight in the United Nations Bulletin.

A S 20, 000, 000 plan, to be carried outby progressive stages over aperiod of 12 years, for thecreation of a world network of

Fundamental Education Centres (1)was approved by Unesco's ExecutiveBoard last month.

The plan is part of a worldwidedrive against illiteracy and low livingstandards. It calls for the establish-ment of a network of six regionalcentres in five of the areas of the worldwhere Unesco's Member States areseeking help in their efforts to eradi-cate illiteracy.

This scheme, which is to be financedby private and government funds out-side Unesco's regular budget, will besubmitted to the Organization'sGeneral Conference for final adoptionnext summer.

The centres are to be established inEquatorial Africa, Latin America, theFar East, India and the Middle East.For the benefit of the countries of eachregion, they will carry out :

Fundamental Education classes (above)were organised in the Marbiat VaUey, ontbe'island of Haiti, as \part ot a pilot pro-ject launched by Unesco. Hope seemedbanished from this valley : poverty, illness,ignorance reigned there. Now, schools.hospitals and local industries have beencreated, and among the inhabitants the willto live has replaced resignation to late."

1 Research to determine the real needs'of the area and experimentation intonew methods and media of fundamentaleducation suited to these needs.

2 Training In each centre of 100 spe-cialists, teachers and field workers fora year, or a total of 5, 400 specialists Inthe six centres by the end of 12 years.

3 production of locally adapted teachingmaterials, including literacy texts,reading matter, guides to teachers and fieldworkers, filmstrips and f) ims, and radiorecordings.

4 Mobile misslona of experts to go intothe fields to help local governments toapply the techniques involved, and thematerials produced, to their literacycampaigns.

"Training By Chain Reaction"

THE centres have been conceivednot merely as training schools orproduction units but as nuclei of

experimentation. One of the novelfeatures of the Unesco scheme hasbeen referred to as"training by chainreaction". A large proportion of the5. 400 specialists, who will have beentrained in fundamental education me-thods at the end of 12 years, willreturn to their countries in teams toestablish national or local trainingcentres ; thus the number of trainedpersonnel resulting directly or indi-rectly from the work of the regionalcentres will be multiplied throughthe establishment of these branchagencies.

Of the six centres, one will be spe-cially equipped with a field unit forthe production of model educationalfilms. Another will be set up toprovide special research and trainingin the production of radio programmesfor fundamental education.

The Unesco scheme for setting upthe fundamental education centreswill make a positive contribution tothe vast plan of Technical Assistancefor Economic Development recentlylaunched by the United Nations andits Agencies. It will make availablespecialists trained in new educationalmethods and the tools needed to con-vey to the masses of people in theseareas the rudimentary knowledge andskills without which they cannotachieve a higher standard of living.

(1) Fundamental Education is a tef"coined by Unesco to describc M'at kind o/minimlllll and generat education whichaims at the preparation of ehild/'CII andadults deprived of propcr sclwoling for abetter participation in thc economic andsocial progress oj lheÍ1' community and ofmankind as a whole.

UNESCO COUtUER-P 4 DECEMBER 1950

ON 9 December 1948, in Paris, theGeneral Assembly of the UnitedNations unanimously approveda Convention on Genocide,

under which the nations solemnlyundertook to prevent and punish thecrime of genocide, whether committeein time of peace or war.

The following are the three mainarticles, in which genocide and theactions incurring international penal-ties are described :

* Article II. Genocide means any ofthe following acts committed with intentto destroy, in whole or in part. a natio-nal, ethnical, racial or religious groupof human beings :

(a) killing members of the group :(b) causing serious bodily or mental

harm to members of the group :(c) deliberately inflicting on the

group conditions of life calculated tobring about its physical destruction inwhole or in part ;

(d) imposing measures intended toprevent births within the group :

(e) forcibly transferring children ofthe group to another group.

Article 1C. The following acts shallbe punishable :

(a) genocide :(b) conspiracy to commit genocide :(c) direct and public incitement to

commit genocide ;(d) attempt to commit genocide ;'(e) complicity in genocide.Article IV. Persons commiting geno-

cide or any of the other acts enume-rated in Article In shall be punished,whether they are constitutionally res-ponsible rulers, public officials or pri-vate individuals. *

A Courageous Proclamation

THERE are two extreme views onthe subject of this Convention.Some regard it as a praiseworthy

but ineffective gesture-a mere ideo-logical"pointer"-serving no otherpurpose than to indicate the lines offuture reforms and of future institu-tions to be established.

Others see in it a most courageousproclamation of the primacy of inter-national morality over individualsovereignty.

Holders of the first view maintainthat, by refusing to include politicalminorities in the groups to be protect-ed against extermination, the Assem-bly failed to carry out the essence ofits task. They also affirm that themention of an"international penaltribunal", which is not yet in being,strengthens the impression of futilitycreated by the Convention. Its valueis, this school says, confined to theethical sphere. It is only the expres-sion of a desired aim and not anachievement.

Holders of a more positive viewattack such criticism as being symp-tomatic of the permanently scepticalattitude of those who under-estimatethe dynamic value of principles andwritten instruments. They recall that,at the outset, neither the 1789 Decla-ration of the Rights of Man and theCitizen, nor the Communist Manifestoof 1848, nor the United NationsCharter itself were anything butdocuments enshrining principles. Yetwho can be blind to the growth ofconcrete achievements from thesedocuments ?

A document of this type will be ofhistoric value if men translate its aimsinto action. In the meantime, thegreat importance of the GenocideConvention is that it has been una-nimously agreed to by 55 countrieswhich in other matters are gravely

ON January 12, the United Nations Convention on the Prevention andPunishment of the Crime of Genocide-the deliberate mass extinctionof human groups-will come into force, having been ratified or acceded

to by over 20 countries.The Convention will give legal effect to important principles of the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights for it can be linked not to one, but to many of theDeclaration's articles ; such articles, for example, as the one which enjoins men toact to one another in a spirit of brotherhood, that which provides for equality oftreatment for all peoples, that which guarantees for all men the right to life, libertyand security of person, that which prohibits torture, cruel or inhuman treatmentand a number of others.

The Convention on Genocide, therefore, fits well into the great task undertakenby the United Nations to ensure basic human rights and freedoms to every humanbeing and to establish a world rule of law.

divided. It places legally in thewrong any persons who try to repeatthe experiment of systematically exter-minating an entire group of humanbeings.

Examples of the extermination ofwhole populations-a town, a tribe oror a sect-are only too frequent inhistory. In the earliest times, thevictor doubtless often found it moreconvenient, and safer, simply to anni-hilate the vanquished. Periods re-corded by history on the other hand,if carefully studied, show that theresult of a victory was more often thesubjection than the total extermin-ation of the defeated party.

Conquering empires were more con-cerned to increase their wealth andthe number of their subjects andslaves than to make deserts of thelands they had overrun. Alexander,Caesar, and even Attila, sought firstand foremost to collect allies andvassals ; and Caesar, when there wasa revolt against him, sold the rebels asslaves. Only when the subject peopleswere permanently rebellious were the"guilty"massacred.

With the growth of fanatical reli-gious passions, like that inspired byIslam in its first period of expansion,or by the Christianity of the Cru-sades, it became a general practice toexterminate"infldels". This practicewas adopted not only by lawless

WHEN GENOCIDE BECAME AN INDUS-TRY". Under the Nazi occupation, millionsof human beings were slaughtered on suchgrounds as :"The final solution of theJewish question means the complete exter-mination of all Jews in Europe."Extermi-nation"facilities"-camps where men,women and children were tortured, starvedand worked to death- were organized ona scale large enough to accomplish theplan of exterminating or permanently weaken-ing entire racial and national groups ofEurope. Ovens were built to burn thebodies of the victims (above). Only thevictory of the United Nations forces inEurope and Asia put an end to these crimesagainst humanity ; but not until i2. 000. 000men,. women and children had been done todeath by order of the German and Japanese

authorities.

soldiery but, as part of a deliberatepolicy, by princes and religious author-ities themselves.

Thy earlier massacrings of rebels,from the time of the slaughter of theAlbigenses and of the victims ofSaint Bartholomew's Night in Franceup to that of the pogroms in EasternEurope and the killing of the Arme-nians, were due to blind fanaticism orpitiless policy. But it is only in ourown days that we find cold-blooded,systematic, total extermination, on ascale never before practised.

Crimes Against Humanity

THE number of men, women andchildren-manly Jews and Chin-eye-done to death by order of

the German and Japanese authoritieshas been officially put at 12, 000, 000 (1).After the victory of the United Na-tions, the principal war criminals re-ceived the punishment that was de-manded by outraged public opinionthe world over. But the legal appa-ratus set in motion to deal with these"crimes against humanity"was morethan a mere expression of the world'sanger. What was new was the solemnstatement that henceforth there werecertain acts that could be excusedneither by necessities of war nor bythe plea that they were carried outas a result of formal orders received.In future there would be a human lawoverriding any instructions issued bynational authorities, and individualsno less than heads of States wouldhave to answer for any atrocities com-mitted.

This innovation of capital import-ance establishes the duty of refusingobedience on grounds of loyalty to theelementary principles of humanity.It is part of a tremendous movementin contemporary thought in the di-rection of restoring the primacy ofpersonal rights which were introducedtwo centuries ago by the founders ofmodern democracy, but which con-siderations of collective efficiency andachievement of the maximum"results"had gradually destroyed. The Uni-versal Declaration of Human Rights,adopted on 10 December 1948 by theGeneral Assembly of the UnitedNations, is one of the signs of thisrehabilitation of the essential princi-ples of all civilized society.

Crusader Against Genocide

THE Nuremberg and Tokyo tri-i bunals, however, were only com-petent to deal with crimes com-

mitted during the war. They refused

THE CONVENTION ON THE PREVENTIONAND PUNISHMENT OF GENOCIDE has nowreceived the necessary numbers of instru-ments of ratification or accession to enableit to be brought into force. Shown aboveare representatives of states who ratified theConvention on October 14. They are :(seated ; left to right) Dr. John P. Chang, ofKorea ; Dr. Jean Price-Mars, of Haiti ; Ambas-sador Nasrollah Entezam of Iran ; Ambassa-dor Jean Chauvel, of France and Mr. RubenEsquivel de la Guardia, of Costa Rica.Standing, left to right : Dr. Ivan Kerno,Assistant Secretary General for the Depart-ment of Legal Affairs ; Mr. Trygve Lie, Secre-tary-General of the U. N. ; Mr. Manuel Four-nier Acuna, of Costa Rica and Dr. R. Lem-kin, crusader for the Genocide Convention.

to deal with the flagrant persecutionthat took place before 1939, when thetotalitarian regimes were extendingtheir power. Yet the danger of so-called"undesirable"minorities beingexterminated is almost as menacing intime of peace as in time of war. Itwas intolerable that acts of this typeshould be protected by the institutionof national sovereignty, and that thecivilized world should continue to haveno legal remedy against atrocities thatregimes subject to no control might betempter to commit.

A certain man decided to vindicatethe idea of setting up some inter-national legal authority to punish and,more important, to prevent such actsof total extermination, no matter whencommitted or attempted. Ever since1933, Professor Lemkin, of Yale Uni-versity, a Pole by origin who was alegal adviser at the Nuremberg trials,had devoted himself to th1s cause. Tohim we owe the term genocide,meaning the killing of persons whohave committed no other crime thanto belong to a given race or group ofhuman beings. Thanks to the grue-some revelations of 1945, he finallyachieved his aim.

At the General Assembly of theUnited Nations in 1946, the delegatesof Panama, India and Cuba agreed tomove a resolution against genocide.This resolution has been, and is,respected by the overwhelming major-ity of States. It has on occasion, aswe know, been violated. But in theperiod from 1919 to 1939 internationalobligations were respected by 60sovereign states, and violated byonly 3. This small minority was suc-cessful, for the time being, in evadingtheir obligations only because thepenalties prescribed for such actionwere not applied. More recent hap-penings, however, show that to-daythe United Nations are less toleranttowards breakers of undertakings.And perhaps it is not altogether vainto hope that, should the crime ofgenocide threaten to re-appear, thegovernments and peoples will succeedin using the clear and stringent termsof the Convention to prevent anyfresh essays in mass extermination.

Thus not only the"good pleasure"ofprinces, but also that of States, hashad to yield ground in favour of therights of the human person and,indeed, of the rights of Law.

(I). 4s,'eflal'ds Ihe Jeu's, xlf/tis/ies for flIulal of some I ã EIII'o/lCan e'''l/Ill'ies ore a..fottows :

letvish w}/IIla/iulI ill 1939 : 8, 301, 000.Killed belwel'lI 1940 alld 1 ! 1 Ci : ã, 978, too.The IIlImb ('I' of killed Ihus amounted 10

7 % % of Ihe 11"/10/1'. III Polamt the/'e II'el'f !:/, 800, 000,'ic/ims (8ã % of the Jeu's) ; illuccll/lird IIllssia,. 2, 100, 000, etc, (I'OI/1/1l11etC (u III'. Joeol, L {'/cllinsky, published by till'WOI'ld Jewish Congress, ill ElIglis/. (wdfrench, Febl'/IUI'y-Jlllle 1916.)

CORRECTION

In a story published in the lastissue of the COURIER, relating tothe work of Unesco in efforts toimprove and rationalize the com-plexities of mtemahonal copyrightlaw, it was stated :

"This work... is intended tounite international conventionsnow in force into a singeconvention.-"It should be made clear that

the intention is not to replace orsupersede any present conven-tions on copyright, but only tesupplement them.

DECEMBER 1950 Page S-UNESCO COURIER

WORLD FIGURES GREET SECOND i i ANNIVERSARY

OF THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

"Jo help all

men forsee

a futere

Message FromM. Jaime TORRES BODET

Di rector-General

Of UNESCO

T. wo years ago the GeneralAssembly of the United. Vations, meeting in Paris,adopted the Universal

Declaralion of Human Rights.Can we say that the existence

of the Declaration has in any waychanged our mode of life duringthese two years ? Some peoplewill point out regretfully that ithas not presented breaches ofthe law, nor the resort toviolence, nor the stagnation ofcertain political and social con-ditions. Undoubtedly, the criti-cism is justified. But is itreasonable to expect that anyDeclaration, however nobly ins-pired, could at once solve allproblems ?

The main role of the Declar-ation is, in fact, to help all menforesee a future toward whichthe governments can guide theiractivities In a common endeavour.If at times the cruel irony ofevents makes us doubt the sin-cerity o {the Declaration as asplendid affirmation of princi-ples. let us not forget that itprovides the basis of the concreteactivities already undertaken bythe United Nations on behalfHuman Rights. Let us bear inmind that it has played a part inthe judgment of not a few courtsof law; ; and that inevitably itsinfluence on morals and opi-nions, already great, will bemore and more directly felt, evenin the field of law-making.

Human Rights Covenant

THE United Nations is now. working on an Interna.'ional

Covenant of Human Riqhtswhich, unlike the Declaration,will have binding force on all thesignatories. This Covenant willbe the first document of uni-versal scope to establish a com-mon pattern the attitude o/States toward private citizens.Naturally, therefore, its import-ance will be enormous. But weshould not be led by this fact toforget the great value inherent inthe Universal Declaration o/Human Rights.

There are, no doubt, some peo-ple who may be tempted to be-lieve that the Declaration shouldhave begun with a strict de/i-nition of the minimum commit-ments which states should andcould undertake, instead of withan affirmation of principles.But, had this minimum beenfixed, the states might have con-tented themselves merely withshowing the boundaries beyondwhich barbarism could not pass.A proclamation of the idealswhich clearly and positivelye, establish the frontiers of civiliz-ation might have been postponeduntil a remote future..

Chart For The Future

FOR example, would a simpleagreement on commitmentshave included articles on

social security, on the right toeducation and culture ; andwould it have given the coer-cive force ? How many countrieswould have been able to under-take such commitments ? Let usnot forget that all nations havenoi reached the same stage o/economic development, nor havethey all the same cultural andsocial traditions,

Let us bear in mind, too, thatthis Declara ! ion, which charts sobright a future for mankind, wasadopted on tlte morrow of atro-cities whose barbarism awakenedour generation from its mood ofcomplacency, To proclaim hu-man Rights was to propose apositive civilization; it was toaffirm that mankind has enoughconfidence In such a civilizationto overcome the difficulties in itspath, and to survive.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

"DECLA-

RATION

HAS

ALREADY

HELPED

THE

CAUSE

OF HUMAN RIGHTS"

IAM very happy to have thisopportunity to say that I feelthe Universal Declaration of

Human Rights has already helpedus to progress in the observance ofhuman rights in many parts of theworld. Both the Constitution ofIndia and that of Indonesia bearthe stamp of acceptance of these

rights and there are an increasingnumber of people who refer to theDeclaration in their speeches andeven though it is not a legallybinding document, it has beenreferred to in court decisions.

I realise that it will take sometime for the education on the real

meaning of human rights and res-pect for the human personality tohe accepted In the same way

throughout the world, but I cannothelp feeling that we have alreadymoved ahead a long way.

There is much more to do andnobody can afford not to beconcerned about the future work onhuman rights and the actual changein human nature which must take

place before these rights are fullyimplemented, but we have made abeginning and I believe we aremoving forward.

ELEANOR ROOSEVELTChairman of the United NationsCommission on Human Rights.

"WORK

FOR THE

FUTURE"

"UNITED

NATIONS

GAVE

HUMAN

RIGHTS

MESSAGE

A NEW FORCE"

F ROM the very beginning of theFrench Revolution in 1789when the Declaration of the

Rights of Man and the Citizen wasproclaimed, not only the liberties ofFrench nationals were defined, butthose of every person in everynation of the world.

Its message was universal andovercame alt frontiers.

Though widely circulated androusing the deepest interest amongall peoples during that period ofalmost fanatical fervour, it was notuntil a century and a half later-150 years of continual sacrifice-that'this appeal on behalf of Manand his liberties became trulvuniversal

The United Nations gave the

message a new force. TheirDeclaration, now two years old,not only reaffirms the rights of allthe members of the human familyhut clearly states, in the light ofall the trials and warring of nationsand men, the conditions of human

dignity on all social levels and themost noble aims of twentieth

century civilization,As long as these rights and these

liberties are accorded universal

respect, the peoples will be freedfrom war, ignorance, fear and

misery. In other words, thenations who have solemnh reco-

gnised these rights and liberties,have no greater nor more urgenttask than to ensure that theybecome living, sincere and effectiverealties.

M. VINCENT AURIOLPresident of the French Republic.

IN a world.which is fullof conflict

and hatred annviolence, it be-comes evenmore necessary than al any othertime for us to have some anchorto our faith in human destiny.The solemn proclamation by theUnited Nations of the UniversalDeclaration of Human Rightsprovides such an anchorage, ifonly we hold on to it. I welcome,therefore, the celebration of thesecond anniversary of this Declar-ation and I hope that it willrevive in peoples'minds all overthe world that there are certain

positive values in life which wemust respect and hold on to, if lifeis to be made worth living. The

present may be bad, but the presentpasses, giving place to the future.If the future we work for is fullof hope for humanity, then the illsof the present do not matter muchand we have a justification for

working for that future.So I welcome this anniversary of

an event important in man's historyand I send greeting to all those whowork for the realisation of thosehuman rights which we have

proclaimed.

JAW AHARLAL NEHRUPrime Minister of India.

"THE

WORLD

HAS NOW

SPOKEN"

FEWnow content

the opinionthat the Univer-sal Declaration of Human Rights isone of the historic documents ofour epoch. Already in scores of

significant international as well asnational encounters it has beenappealed to in authoritative justifi-cation of certain causes or com-

plaints. A growing body ofjurisprudence is building uparound it. As an objective standard,the Declaration serves at once asa potent ferment of ideas, as adisturber and judge of actual

practice, and as a solid ground towhich movements of reform cananchor themselves.

That organized humanity wasable after three years of responsibledebate to arrive at this impressivedefinition of what belongs to manas man, without a single opposingvoice in the final voting, was atremendous event. The world hasnow. formally spoken for the firsttime a to'what constitutes theproper digility and worth of man.

For the thoughtful student, thedebates that attended the elabora-tion of the Declaration would

prove perhaps more important thanthe Declaration itself. It was inthese debates that the dialectic ofidea and attitude among theeffective cultures of the presentworld became manifest.

The present elaboration of theCovenant, the next stage beyond theDeclaration, is meeting with somedifficulty. But no matter howmuch the nations, whetherunderstandably or not, fight shyof a strong binding Covenant, theDeclaration, which has alreadybeen debated and decided on bvthem. will forever serve as a

goading reminder of the ideals towhich they have alreadv solemnly

pledged themselves.

CHARLES MASK

Minister of Lebanon3n the UnitedStates and Rapporteur of theCommission on Human Rights.

"THE FREEDOMS

FOR

WHICH

WE

STAND "

NOW, whenit is morethan even

necessary to def-end those freedoms for which we,in the community of the UnitedNations stand, we welcome theopportunity which is given in thesecolumns of the Unesco Courier tore-affirm our belief in the Declaration of Human Rights on thissecond anniversary of its signature.

MR. GEORGE TOMLINSONMinister of Education

for England and Wales.

"FOR

AN

OPEN

WORLD"

IN the Univer-s a I Declar-action of

Human Rightsaspirations are set forth whichunite all humanity in spite of the

deep-rooted divergencies whichexist in the world to-day as to howcommon ideals can best be realized.In order that these divergencies"hall not prevent the fulfilment ofthe hopes embodied in the estab-lishment of the United NationsOrganization, it appears mosturgent that efforts be undertakenfrom all sides to encourage a freeexchange of information and ideasbetween nations without whichco-operation in true confidencecannot be achieved.

In an Open Letter of June 9th,J 950, to the United Nations, dealingwith the challenge to civilization

presented by modern developmenlsof science and technology I havetried to stress this point, and atthe present occasion I would liketo quote the following passages :

"An open world where eachnation can assert itself solely bythe extent to which it can contri-bute to the common culture and isable to help others with experienceand resources must be the goal tobe put above everything else. Still,

example in such respects can beeffective only if isolation isabandoned and free discussion ofcultural and social developments

permitted across all boundaries."Within any community it is

only possible for the citizens tostrive together for common welfareon a basis of public knowledge ofthe general conditions in thecountry. Likewise, real co-opera-tion between nations on problems ofcommon concern pre-supposes freeaccess to all information of im-portance for their relations. Anyargument fo/'upholding barriersfor information and intercourse,based on concern for nationalideals or interests, must beweighed against tlie beneficialeffects of common enlightenmentand the relieved tension resultiny

from openness."In the search for a harmonious

relationship between the life of theindividual and the organization ofthe the community, there have alwaysbeen and will ever remain many

problems to ponder and principlesfor which to strive. However, tomake it possible for nations to

benefit from the experience ofothers and to avoid mutual

misunderstanding of intentions,free access to information andunhampered opportunity for ex-change of ideas must be grantedeverywhere.

Professor NIELS BOHRDanish Physicist.

UNESCO COURIER-Page 6 DECEMBER 1950

UNESCO EXHIBITION-ALBUM 1

UNENDING FIGHT TO GAl

Human rights, as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration adopted by the United Nations GeneralAssembly on December I 0, 1948, are the outcome of a struggle that has been going on sincethe dawn of history. The scope of the Declaration's thirty articles cannot therefore be

properly understood without some knowledge of the great efforts and sacrifices they reflect.As part of its collective campaign of education and information aimed at showing both chil-

dren and adults the help they can derive from the Rights and the corresponding duties they mustfulfil in return, Unesco is publishing and will distribute a special Human Rights exhibition-album.

On these pages, the Courier is reproducing a few of the album's 276 illustrations which depict'struggles and victories in the history of human rights as well as brief extracts from an accom-panying 40-page booklet from which teachers can supply the historical background that throwslight on the meaning, circumstances and scope of the events to which the illustrations refer.

The illustration. and corresponding texts, which are taken from the Human Rights Exhibitionorganized by Unesco in Paris last year, have been selected so as to form miniature reproduc-ticn of large sections of this exhibition.

Nearly 12, 000 copies of the album are being published. A number of these are being sent toUnesco Member States and National Commissions for use in schools, libraries and adult educationcentres. Other copies will be obtainable from the Unesco Sales Agents, listed on page 2 of thisissue, as from next January, priced at S3, or 16/-or 800 French francs.

THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY

AT the beginning of the nineteenth cen-tury slavery was still a basic institu-tion in a number of great and other-

wise highly civilized countries. In 1835 itflourished in the colonies of all the greatEuropean countries, and in North andSouth America. Immense economic inte-rests and a complete social system werebased on it. The supporters of abolitionwere treated as dangerous Utopians, whenthey were not prosecuted and punished ascriminals.

Yet within half a century slavery waseverywhere abolished.

The history of the abolition, in a rela-tively short space of time, shows that anidea which is apparently Utopian but isbasically true can be speedily translatedinto fact when men who are at once cou-rageous and discerning will take a handin public affairs. It is on this that theauthors of the Universal Declaration ofHuman Rights have based their reasonedhopes.

FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT

VERYONE has the right to Freedomof movement and residence withinthe borders of each State.

"Everyone has the right to leave manycountry, including his own, and to returnto his cotftttry."

So states Article 13 of the Universal De-claration. Like many other articles, itlays down principles that, though readilyacknowledged in theory, are far frombeing put into practice everywhere. Itmight even be said that, in the twentiethcentury, freedom of movement has suffer-ed a setback, despite the tremendous de-velopment of the material facilities oftransport from one part of the globe toanother.

It would seem that the first fourteenyears of the twentieth century marked theapex of man's freedom of movement onearth. Not only were time, cost and in-security then reduced to a minimum, butthe obstacles placed in the way of travel-lers by States had almost entirely vanish-ed. In 1913 one could travel without apassport in all Europe, with the exceptionof Russia and Turkey.

But after the 1914-1918 war, humanobstacles to freedom of movement increas-ed ; passports, formalities and restrictionsreappeared. The New World was partiallyclosed to immigrants. After the 1939-1945war, difficulties became general, and wereadded to by financial regulations. Today,despite marked improvements in aircraft

and automobiles, the delightful freedom ofmovement of 1913 is no more than amemory.

Freedom of movement is a perfectexample of a principle that men are atone in proclaiming but render nugatory inpractice. Only international agreementbased on firm, clear-cut undertakings, willsuffice to remove, for the benefit of themajority, the present obstacles whichprofit scarcely anyone.

THE ABOLITIONOF INHUMAN TREATMENT

THE revival of torture on a vast scale, inour own times and in countries pos-sessing a high degree of culture, proves

that our advances in civilization are nottoo sure, and that constant vigilance, aid-ed by clearly defined laws and the meansto see that they are enforced, is the onlyway of preventing nations from returning,with terrifying ease, to the worst practicesof the dark ages.

Article 5 of the Universal Declaration isshort and categorical in this matter :

"No one shall be sUbjected to tortureor to cruel, inhuman or degrading treat-ment or punishment."

The history of the world is only too fullof examples or atrocious tortures appliedto punish actions, beliefs, or utterancesthat today we regard as harmless, legiti-mate or even, on occasion, praiseworthy. Itis remarkable that so many great menshould have suffered torture in the nameof some law that now seems absurd to us :Savonarola, Macchiavelli and so manyothers, not counting innumerable"here-tics"and"witches"who were simply burn-ed alive, from Joan of Arc and John Hussin the fifteenth, Michel Servet and Gior-dano Bruno in the sixteenth, to the"witches"of New England in the seven-teenth centuries.

It was by a slow, very slow process,that civilized humanity finally abandonedthese practices.

PROTECTION AGAINSTARBITRARY ARREST ;

EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW

A brief examination of ancient lawsand customs will reveal the state ofpersonal insecurity and social injus-

tice in which our fathers lived. The con-quest of the rights of the person is a mo-dern enterprise, far from complete andconstantly threatened with setbacks. Theprogress so far made, however, justifiesthe further efforts that are incumbent onthe men and nations of today.

THE DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MANis one of the world's historic human rights'docu-ments. Produced during the first summer of theFrench Revolution, it maintained that men areborn free and equal, and proclaimed freedom ofspeech, security and defence against oppression.It was one of the chief sources of inspiration toother peoples also struggling to achieve freedom.

established institution, disappear fromEnglish, French, Russian and Americansoil within a quarter of a century <1838-1865). It may be that, in another twenty-five years, nothing Utopian will be seen inArticle 25 of the 1948 Declaration :

"Everyone has the right to a standard Ofliving adequate for the health and welL'being of himself and of his family, includ-ing food, clothing, housing and 7TU ? dicalcare and necessary social services, and theright to security in the event of unem-ployment, sickness, disability, widowhood,old age or other lack of livelihood in cir-cumstances beyond his control."

During the last hundred years, nume-rous laws have improved the living con-ditions of the less favoured classesthroughout the world. Hospitals havebeen modernized, and social welfare enter-prises have increased. The world has be-come accustomed to the idea that a nationis fully responsible for the lot of each ofits citizens, no less than to the democraticprinciple that each citizen must assumesome responsibility in public affairs.

THE PROTECTIONOF FAMILY LIFE

AND OF PROPERTY

A s the idea of the rights of the perso,, :has developed, rights that we nowregard a true criterion of civilization,

the status of women and children hasevolved in the direction of an ever greaterfreedom to determine their own fate.Legal or customary restrictions, which inearly times were very severe, are tendingto disappear..

This development is illustrated by ArtiJ.

FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT. For a long period, widely separated civilizations developed in isolation,unaware of each others existence. During the Renaissance, the discovery of America, commemoratedin this engraving (above), and the first voyages round the world brought these different civilizations intocontact. In the 20th century, freedom of movement has suffered a setback due to"human"obstacles :passport visas, formalities and restrictions. Only international agreement can remove, for the benefit

of the majority, such obstacles.

In contrast with the brutal and unjustpractices that still subsist in many partsof the world, we may quote the followingpassages from the New Constitution ofIndia which is now in force, and frees allcitizens from the fear of arbitrary arrestand wrongful interference at the handsof the State :

"The people of India, solemnly resolvedto constitute India as a sovereign anddemocratic Republic, undertake to gua-rantee to all its citizen :-" Social, economic and political justice ;

"Freedom of thought, expression,'opi-non, faith and worship ;

"equality before the law and access to allrights ; it further undertakes to promote. among all men

"Fraternity, which ensures the dignityof the individual and the unity of thenation."

These words show us how far the fun-damental ideas as to human rights haveprogressed throughout the world.

THE DIGNITY OF LABOUR,AND SOCIAL SECURITY

UNTIL a very short time ago, no matterhow much suffering or inequalitywas caused by unemployment, differ-

ences in wealth, the misuse of power,or other circumstances, it was generallyconsidered that each man had to"shiftfor himself"to find work, and protect hisinterests as best he could. It was onlywhen faced with the new economic and so-cial conditions of the nineteenth centurythat legislators were forced to acknow-ledge that, where labour was concerned,the absence of regulations led to new privi-leges, fresh oppression, and an increasingrisk of disturbances and violence. In otherwords, the task of freeing the human per-son remained unfinished so long as thefundamental principles formulated forcitizens in general had not been legallyapplied to the protection of the worker assuch. To put it more briefly still, whatgood were theoretical freedom and equa-lity, if the only choice open to a man was"misery or revolt" ?

The progress achieved, or still to beachieved, in this matter follows logicallyupon the civil and political progress madeduring the last 150 years. It has been madepossible only by the establishment of un-restricted universal suffrage, which is anapplication of-the basic democratic princi-ple of equality. This conquest of universalsuffrage has been largely due to the con-stant and strenuous efforts of labour orga-nizations themselves.

STANDARD OF LIVING,AND ASSISTANCE

CERTAIN articles, the more daring, of theUniversal Declaration of HumanRights have impelled many people to

exclaim :"But this is Utopian ! Unfortu-nately, the world hasn't reached thatstage !"

True, the world has not yet reachedthat stage. But the world is in processof evolution, and that evolution dependson men. We have seen slavery, a well-

cle 16 of the Universal Declaration of 1948,which states that"men and women... with-out any limitation due to race, natio7Uilit :'or religion, have the right to marry and tfound a family. they are entitled to eqid.rights.., Marriage shall be entered intoonly with the free and. full consent of theintending spouses."

To us, there is nothing revolutionary inthese stipulations ; but they would haveseemed so in the past. The novels and,plays of the seventeenth and eighteenthcentury alone show us the lengths towhich family and social tyranny couldproceed in such matters..

The notion of property, one of the ideasmost hotly discussed in our day, is dealtwith in Article 17 of the Declaration ofHuman Rights, at least in a negative form :"No one shall be arbitrarily deprived ofhis property."

In former times a prince simply confis-cated the property of some of his sUbject&., ;as Louis XIV did in the case of the Pro :'&gt;testants. In modern times, many a newrégime has done as much with the pro-perty of individuals or social groups thathave fallen from power ; Hitler, for inst-ance, confiscated the property of Jews. Itwill always be difficult to draw the lin !between arbitrary spoliation on the onhand and legal expropriation (if the put.blic interest demands it) accompanied buzzfair compensation, on the other.

In the last resort, only the conscience\of citizens can and must determine whena legal act becomes an abuse of power. Ifmay even be said that this distinctio !denotes the difference between a true ana false democracy. f

THE EMANCIPATIONOF WOMEN \

THE story of women's rights is a fas-cinating one. They have been subject,throughout history, to extraordinary

vicissitudes.There have been periods of total eman

cipation, and periods of enslavemen'beyond all hope of deliverance. Sometimes men have placed women in a posi-tion of eminence ; at other times, womenhave had to win their own rights at thecost of a long struggle against the dis-trust, fear and derision of their contemporaries. In Ancient Egypt, woman, thougtfor a time enslaved to man, very soot.attained complete equality with him.

In Ancient Greece, especially with theBoeotians and the Spartans, society longadhered to the primitive law that regard-ed women as veritable beasts of burden.

The great Renaissance, which began atearly as the twelfth century in Mediter-ranean countries, was accompanied by agreat advance in women's emancipation.

We cannot recount the history of wo-men's emancipation as it developed inevery country, but most nations have re-cognized the principle of equal rights to !both sexes. There is therefore nothing ir,the Universal Declaration of 1948 that ifrevolutionary nor Utopian, as would havebeen the case fifty years ago. It simpl ;lays down, for the whole world, principlethat have been established by different :civilizations after centuries of effort anethe gradual elimination of many injustice ; [ ;.

DECEMBER 1950 Page 7-UNESCO COURIER

o SHOW MAN'S

J HIS RIGHTS

FREEDOM OF RELIGION

THE right to freedom of conscience andreligion is an achievement of moderntimes. This right has conflicted less

with material interests than with deepand traditional beliefs. From time im-memorial, men convinced that they possessthe truth have thought it their duty toimpose it, by law or by force, on othermen whose idea of the truth was different,and those who serve one god have calledthose who serve another god"infidels."

It was to the eighteenth century,essentially the century of the emancip-ation of the human person, that fell the

honour of fighting religious intoleranceunremittingly and defeating it almosteverywhere, at least legally.

The 1948 Universal Declaration ofRights was not content, in its Article 18,merely to reassert the individual's rightto freedom of thought, conscience andreligion, and his right to freedom tochange his religion or belief. It explicit-ly added"freedom, either alone or incommunity with others and in public orprivate, to manifest his religion or beliefin teaching, practice, worship and observ-ance."

We should not however forget that, ifthe spirit of persecution is declining in thematter of religious beliefs, it has neverbeen more aggressive in the political andthe social sphere. In various places inthis respect, the final conquest of therights of the human person in our worldof today, is far from having beenachieved.

that it is a sign of strength in authoritiesto grant all citizens a wide measure offreedom of discussion and that to suppresfjthat freedom is a sign of fear and there-fore of weakness, Article 19 of the 1948Declaration will readily find its place innational legal systems.

THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION

THE right of every human being toeducation is, of all the rights affirmedby the United Nations Declaration of

1948, one of the least contested.Article 26, which deals with the right

to education, was adopted unanimouslywith two abstentions. The terms of thearticle are couched in no uncertain lan-guage, although nations and families aregiven all reasonable freedom in inter-preting it : elementary education must befree and compulsory, technical and profes-sional education must be made generallyavailable, and higher education must beequally accessible to all, on the basis ofmerit.

This is the culmination of a centuryand a half of effort made in almost allcountries with a view to a truly demo-cratic distribution of education. Ahundred years ago the idea of makingeducation accessible to all appeared, tomany, to be dangerously Utopian.

In our times, whole continents, wherelower standard of living seemed insepar-able from an equally low standard ofeducation are now adopting populareducation, accessible to all. This, as Jef-ferson said, is essential to any democraticrégime based on popular endorsement.

FREEDOM OF THOUGHTAND OPINION

AT all periods, the progress of civiliz-ation has been retarded by lack offreedom in the dissemination of

ideas and opinions. An idea cannot bekilled by censorship or prohibition, but itsadvance can long be delayed. For wholecenturies, intellectual life and social pro-gress have been checked and sometimesparalysed by the concerted will ofchurches and princes, closely united tomaintain a status quo favourable to theirprivileges. The invention of printing inthe fifteenth century placed a formidableweapon in the hands of innovators andreformers, whose resources increased withthe spread of pamphlets and, later, pe-riodicals.

While with the press, the film and theradio there has been an increase in themeans of propagating ideas, the means ofcontrolling and checking this propagationhave also become much more refined. Inthe past, authorities were, in a way,powerless against ideas communicatedfrom man to man. Today, great news-papers are more vulnerable than were theslim pamphlets of the past, and the polic-ing of frontiers has everywhere becomefar more effective.

There is no doubt that, in certain partsof the world, freedom of information isin retrogression. On the other hand it isnoteworthy that the new Republic ofIndia has through its Constituent Assem-bly proclaimed the right to freedom ofspeech and expression for all its citizens.

When it comes to be generally admitted

PARTICIPATIONIN CULTURAL LIFE

THE right to education is completed bythat to"participate freely in the curl-tural life of the community", a right

stated in Article 27 of the Universal De-claration of 1948. Works of art and thebenefits of scientific progress should beaccessible to all. It would be difficult, inthis regard, to lay down strict laws,applicable in all cases and to all persons.But what the Declaration seeks to estab-lish is quite clear. It is equally clear whatit seeks to prevent-that cultural lifeshould be made the privilege of certaingroups ; that material or financial obsta-cles should come between a work of artand men of good will who wish toapproach it ; and that the results ofscientific progress should be monopolizedfor the profit or enjoyment of a few.

At all periods, culture has been demo-cratic in some of its manifestations, e. g.games and athletic competitions, popularsongs and dances, and performances atwhich the people were at once spectatorsand actors.

But the outstanding cultural feature ofmodern times is the diffusion of theprinted word. Gutenberg's invention (ofwhich the Chinese were the forerunners)greatly increased the individual's oppor-tunities of acquiring culture withoutdepending upon collective manifestations.Books are not expensive, and this hasmade the personal conquest of knowledgepossible, without reliance on the ratherexclusive schools of the past. Books havebeen the great liberators of modern man.

WHEN HUMAN RIGHTS WERE VIOLATED. Under Hitler's rule in Germany, human rights were syste-matically violated, all individual liberty was suppressed and all questions affecting morality, human rightsand human dignity, were subordinated to the lust for power of a so-called"master race". Aggressivediplomacy soon led to war. Frontiers were violated, provinces annexed, peoples enslaved. Nearly allnations were involved in the conflict. The war took a total of forty million lives-the civilian victims ofmass murder in concentration camps (above, right), and the soldiers who left their homes to fight and die

(above, leftrso that enslaved countries might be liberated.

FREEDOM OF CREATIVE WORK

ARTICLE 27 of the Universal Declarationof 1948, which deals with the rightof everyone to participate in cultural

life, also mentions everyone's right to"theprotection oj the moral and 11Ul. terial in-terests"resulting from"any scientijic,literary or artistic production or which heis the author".

The application of this principle is ob-viously less extensive than that of therights of all readers, listeners or specta-tors, I. e. everyone as a whole. Here, onlythe actual creators, writers, artists orscientists, are concerned. But their pro-tection means the defence of all civiliz-ation, and thus, indirectly, everyone pro-fits by it.

The creator, as a man, must enjoy tothe full those rights that belong to all,including the right to choose his placeof residence and his occupation, and tobe guaranteed a standard of living thatensures his dignity (Articles 13, 23, 24 and25) ; thus protected, it is for him alone tobring his available thought and effort tobear upon the work he has chosen. Theless the rest of mankind intervenes inthis choice, the sounder and purer thischoice will be.

The better a civilization understands theplace occupied in its destiny by thinkersand artists, the greater the number ofrecognized creators there will be, and thegreater will be the facilities offered them.

THE RIGHT TO PARTICIPATEIN GOVERNMENT

THE civic rights of the individual under-lie all other rights, because they Jnakeit possible to obtain those other rights

peacefully.They also guarantee them against the

arbitrary action of authority.This is stated by the 1948 Universal

Declaration in its Article 21, which is offundamental importance :

"Everyone has the right to take part inthe government or his country, directlyor through jreely chosen representatives.

"Everyone has the right oj equal accessto public service in his country.

"The will oj the'people shall be thebasis oj the authority of government ; thiswill shall be expressed in periodic andgenuine elections which shall be by uni-versal and equal sufjrage and shall beheld by secret vote or by equivalent freevoting procedure."

One hears in these words the echo ofprinciples affirmed at the end of theeighteenth century, at the time of theAmerican and French Revolution, prin-ciples underlying the national constitu-tions of all democratic countries, that is,the majority of modern nations. Thepeoples now know what it costs to bedeprived of such rights ; it 4s to be hopedthat the cruel and disastrous experimentof the twentieth-century dictatorshipswill not too soon be forgotten.

*

WE have seen that the Universal De-claration of Human Rights, adoptedby the Third General Assembly of

the United Nations, sets a milestone ofprogress in two respects.

First, it lays obligations upon forty-eight countries, whose official representat-ives approved it. If it leads to an inter-national Covenant,'the position bfhesitant States will become iIDore andmore difficult to justify and to maintain.

Second, the Declaration courageouslystates certain ideas that are only of recentorigin ; as regards these, it has shown thatthe world was further forward than manypeople imagined.

Still one justifiable question must beanswered :"So much lor rights, but whatabout duties ?"

The answer is simply that the De-claration of Human Rights tacitly in-cludes a complete Declaration of HumanDuties ; there is, indeed, no right that doesnot imply a duty for others to respect anddefend it. And all the duties are foreseenand defined by the recognition of therights of others.

Many of these duties, admittedly, arenegative :"Thou shalt not deprive othersof their liberty,""Thou shalt not per-secute others on account of their. opinion :'"Thou shalt not arbitrarily exploit thework of others."But what a progress itwould be, in this world of ours, if all menpractised their negative duties !

If and when the rights of the individualare fully applied, every man will be facedby a supreme responsibility, that of direct-ing his own fate. He will have lost butone right, that of regarding himself as ahelpless victim in a world where freedomof decision does not belong to him. Thereare still men who prefer irresponsibility,and have proved it. All men are not yetready for so full a measure of liberation,but their children will become accustomedto it.

tv ABOLITION OF INHUMAN PRACT ! CES. Vengeance first regarded

1, as a right to be freely exercised by the individual, was later replaced. by public vengeance. The law of an eye for an eye and a tooth for'. a tooth was the source of much cruelty in the penal system and, poison conditions, as Illustrated In this 17th century engraving of acell in the Pastille. Reformers have succeeded in driving home

'he idea that prison IS not enough ; a criminal needs re-educating.

THE RIGHT TO PARTICIPATION IN CULTURAL LIFE. Booksare a link between man and man for they enable people to sharein the whole cultural heritage of mankind. In ancient times librarieswere rare and only the priveleged had access to them. Today,travelling libraries like this Canadian one (above) make regular trips,

bringing books within reach of those who live far from cities.

UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE. The attainment of Universal Suffrage formen and the elimination of property requirements for the right to votewas a long and difficult process. The struggle was only half won,however, until the right to vote could also be extended to the otherhalf of humanity-women. The victory was only generally achievedduring our own century. Japanese women (above) obtained this

right after the Second World War.

UNESCO COURIER-Page 8 DECEMBER 1950

FILMS-A UNIVERSAL MEDIUM

TO PROPAGATE A UNIVERSAL DECLARATION

THE good fight to gain and defend human rights calls for the full powersj of man-and aU the art and skill which can extend those powers. Tothe man or woman who shouts the truth from the housetops, the mega-

phone. the microphone and the tape recorder are handy things-sparing thethroat for future use and multiplying the voice a millionfold. The man whoexpresses truth with pen or paintbrush is not baffled by the use to make oftypewriters, printing presses or cinema cameras. Now the motion picture.which speaks so powerfully to the mind and heart, is increasingly devoted tothe heroic themes of human rights.. Along with nobly conceived commercialfilms. there are a number of documentaries. Several of these have beenproduced by or in consultation with the United Nations. Stills reproduced

10 December 1954

ANNIVERSARY OF THE

UNIVERSAL DECLARATION

OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Message from M. Jaime Torres Bodet,

Director-General of Unesco

(Continued from Pay 5)

THE Declaration charts a long andhard road. It is significant thatit uphold. side by side, civil

rights, political rights, social and cur.tural rights, for in'practice there canbe no separation among them. Does a

people have political freedom if it can-not gather the profits of a prosperous

industry and agriculture ? Can a peopledevelop its economy and improve itssocial (organtzatton if its childrenremain illiterate, and its resources of

leadership inadequate ? The domainof Human Rights is indivisible. It isthe whole problem of the improvement

of the lot of human beings that callsus to action.

Noone can any longer be tempted to

complacency by the illusion of securityand of uniformity. One people mayseem to enjoy most of the rights set

forth in the Declaration. But can sucha people really have the rights if its

neighbours lack them ? Can it be sureof keeping them if it fails to take anactive part in the common struggle fourthe recognition of the rights of all peo.

ple ! ? There is no human event whichdoes not affect the whole world. Noone can live outside history ; and thehistory of our time is the crisis of man-kind in the throes of achieving its mate-rial and moral unity-of mankindwhich will know neither peace nor re6-

pite until man's elementary aspirationto the universal recognition of his dig-

nity is satisfied.

A Hope Drives Man Forward

WHEN we live in a time fraught 2cith so many dangers and facea future full of so many new

perspectives ; when it is so plain thatman will find his salvation only by

subordinating to his ideal of justice the

prodigious conquests that nolC threatento dominate him, how can our clarity o/

intelligence yield to the temptation ofdiscouragement ? The proclamation ofHuman Rights takes up. the cry of the

victims, of the enslaved, of the hungryand the workless ; it reveals the pre-sence in man of a hope that drives him

forward on a path where rest wouldbe the accomplice of death. No doubt,the centuries before ours were wrongto believe that uninterrupted progresswould be easy. Mankind does notadvance without setbacks, without re-

treats, without grave crises. No doubt,we pay dearly for the power given tv

man, for the achievements of techniquethe increase of wealth, the attainmen :

br all peoples of self-determination, thebirth oj a real human community ; but

ij we succeed in solving the problemsthat beset us, we shall be able to build

upon them a civilization at long lasttruly Universal.

The Leat'en Of Universality

THus an apPt'al which bursts fromthe very heart of reality calls usto this struggle. Let us conduct

ourselves in a way that will make every

body share in the struggle ; let us createa militant state of mind throughout theworld. Let us enlighten men's con-science. Let us speak to men of their

rights, and also of the duties which willmake them worthy to enjoy the rights.Let us show them that no selfish claimis enough, that the conquest of rights isa struggle in the name of all men andcarries within itself the leaven of uni-

versality. Above all, let us teach themthe ugliness of injustice, of violence alld

of oppression. Let us tell them thatthese dangers threaten us more thenever ; but that also more than ever it

depends upon man, and only upon man,to defeat them and gradually to estab-lish an order u ; hich fulfils our aspira-tions in conformity with the circum-stances of our epoch. We shall thenhave played our part in the achievement

of that ideal which is made the moreglorious by the obstacles it must over-come ; and in hastening the advent ofa policy in which peace and progressare inseparably linked-

above were chosen from two such films. (1) The United Nations film"OfHuman Rights", for example, shows how lack oi tolerance can cause openhostility among the children of a small town. Living on opposite sides of ariver, two groups had previously regarded each other as"different"andcarried on a traditional"war". At left, editor of the local newspaper acts aspeacemaker between them and tells them about the Universal Declaration oíHuman Rights. (2)"Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequatefor the health and well-being oi himseli and his family..." (Article 25, UniversalDeclaration of Human Rights)."Au Carrefour de la Vie" (The Crossroads ofLife), a film produced for the United Nations by Henri Storck, shows how bad

living conditions become the root cause of juvenile delinquency.

UNESCO FILMSTRIPS AID WORLD-WIDE

TEACHING OF HUMAN RIGHTS PRINCIPLES

To help propagate the principles of the human rights, Unesco has produced

and is distributing a series of six filmstrips on themes suggested by theUnited Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for use in schools andin adult education.

The first.. Vilestones, Is a general study of the historical development of theconcept of human rights and each of the other tlve-Abolition of SlaL'ery, Eman.cipation of n'omen, Freedom of Thought, The Right to Education, and Arts andLife-decals with a single article in the Universal Declaration.

Cnesco is distributing them with explanatory notes In English, French. Spanish,arabic and German. These include practical instructions in the use of fiimstrips,a copy of the Preamble to the Universal Declaration and a sentence or paragraphof explanatory exposition tinned with each of the thirty visual frames of each ofthe six filmstrips.

Six hundred prints of each filmstrip have been made and are being distri-Imted to Unesco Member States, Lnesco National Commissions and to Ministries ofEducation or other Government departments. Additional copies, obtainable fromUnesco. cost $3, U or 1, 000 French francs for a set of six, while individual film-strips are available for 50 cents, 3/G or 200 francs. Next year jt is planned tosupplement the series with li1les dealing with other. aspr'l'ts of 1111111an rlghf$.

THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY, bractsfrom a Unesco filmstrip : 1. Conditions on aslave trading ship were appalling. For everynegro torn from his native place who arrivedsafely at his journey's el1d, four died becauseof maltreatment. 2. Slaves had no rights.They were sold by auction in the slave market.Their owners had the power of life and deathover them. 3. Whether the slave was to bewell or ill-treated depended entirely on his

owner.

FREEDOM OF COMMUNICATION. Extractsfrom a Unesco filmstrip : 1. The invention ofthe printing press in the 15th century was oneof the most important developments in thecommunication of ideas. 2. The seizure anddestruction of the press of"le Temps"wasone of the causes of the Revolution of 1830which ended the Bourbon dynasty in France.3. In our own time, the Nazi regime in Germanyrevived the burning of"dangerous"books as

a measure of repression.

DECEMBER 1950 Paae 9-UNESCO COURIER

OF the 30 Articles in theUniversal Declarationof Human Rights,

several are concerned invarious degrees with thefreedom of science. Dr. BartJ. Bok, Associate Director ofthe Harvard College Obser-vatory and former Chairmanof the U. S. National ResearchCouncil's Committee onUnesco, has examined thisquestion in a pamphlet"Freedom of Science", pu-blished in French by Unescoand shortly to appear inEnglish.

In this pamphlet, Dr. Bokpoints out that scientists areespecially conscious of theirrights and freedoms. Forexample, the scientist in hislaboratory desires freedomin the selection of researchtopics and wants guidancerather than orders. Heshould have access to thepublications of other workersin the field and he shouldhave the right to publishfreely the results of his owninvestigations. He wants tohave no restrictions upon hisfreedom of travel and ofcorrespondence.

Further, scientists want toexercise their rights as freecitizens ; they should be freeto participate in the culturaland intellectual life of thecommunity, and to parti-cipate in government and, ifnecessary, to criticize it.

"The community whichrestricts the freedom of itsscientists as citizens will lousein the end. In modernsociety, government at alllevels is constantly faced withpolicy decisions involvingcomplex scientific and tech-nological matters. Wise de-cisions must rest, in part, onthe advice of citric-mindedcitizens, and useful advicewilt hardly be forthcoming ifscientists are not free toexercise their civic responsi-biHties", declares Dr. Bok.

A TASK FOR ALL MEN

IN discussing how the free-dom of science can bepreserved, he says that

scientists must be made torealize that their freedomcan only be retained if theyare willing to react againstall infringements of thisfreedom."They must learnto take no freedom forgranted... scientists cannotaccomplish this task alone.They need sympatheticsupport from non-scientistsin all walks of life and in allprofessions. The freedom ofscience. cannot be maintainedunless there is, in worldopinion, a climate favorableto it."

Dr. Bok refers specificallyto Articles 12, 13 and 19 ofthe Universal Declaration ofHuman Rights (protection

against arbitrary interferenceand attacks, freedom ofmovement and freedom ofopinion) which he states arethe minimum that must beguaranteed if there is to be afreedom of communication.

If a scientist is to workeffectively, he needs as muchas anyone the rights ex-pressed in Articles 20 to 26.These include : freedom ofassembly, the right to takepart in the government of hiscountry, to social security, tofree choice of employment, torest and leisure, to an ade-quate standard of living andto education.

Article 27 (participation incultural life and protection ofscientific, literary or artisticproductions) is especiallyimportant for the scientist.But, says Dr. Bok, referringto Article 29 (Everyone hasduties to the community...),these rights and freedomsare meaningless, unless theyentail certain duties and res-ponsibilities.

A GUARANTEE

FOR FREEDOMS

D. Bok recognizes thatscientists can be consi-dered as prototypes of

world citizens but that inter-

HOW ELECTRONS MOVETHROUGH A WIRE. A cur-rent of electricity passing througha wire may be compared with anumber of boulders rolling down-hill through a forest. The treesrepresent the atoms in the metalof the wire, and the boulders areelectrons which are continuallybumping into them, then movingon again. So tiny is an electronthat several millions of millionspass through an ordinary electric

lamp each second.

nationalism in science is atpresent subject to many con-trols. He comments thatscientists know from every-day experience how close weare to.. one world"of scienceand they have, therefore, aspecial responsibility to workfor the removal of all un-necessary barriers.

He refers also to a Charterfor Scientists prepared by theCommittee on Science and itsSocial Relations (CSSR) ofthe International Council ofScientific Unions, drafted in1948. There has been muchdiscussion about this but kcan see tremendous gains iïindividual scientists in suffi-cient numbers were to decid (>simultaneously and volunta-rily to attach their signatureto the Charter.

Dr. Bok expresses the ups..nion that :

"As long as science is free,scientists are almost automa-tically joined in a world bro-therhood and it is ferventlyhoped that the scientists ofthe world will realise that inthe Universal Declaration ofHuman Rights lies the pro-mise of a guarantee for thetrcherished. freedoms and thatit is their responsibility tojoin the forces that must leadin achieving the universaladr'YJtion of the Declaration.

A CLOCK FOR THE ATOMIC AGE. In a radical departure from allconventional methods of measuring time, an atomic clock-invariant withage and for the first time independent of astronomical observations-hasbeen developed by the National Bureau of Standards in Washington. Basedon a constant, natural vibration frequency of atoms in the ammonia molecule,the atomic clock is a scientific achievement which offers an entirely newprimary standard of frequency and time. Its principiepromises to free man fromage-old methods of fixing time by the daily rotation of the earth on its axis,. was it revolves around the sun. The primary standard, the earth, is verygradually slowing down and, in addition, unaccountable fluctuations in therate of rotation have sporadically lengthened and shortened the day. Thenew method offers an invariant master clock against which the variation intimekeeping of the earth could be measured. This photo shows Dr. E. U.Condon, Director of the National Bureau of Standards, (left) and Dr. HaroldLyons, inventor of the clock, in front of the panels which control it. Dr.Condon is holding a model of the ammonia molecule whose absorption ofradio energy provides the invariant frequency upon which the principle

of the clock is based.

.

WHAT ARE ELECTRONS ?

, by Ira M. Freeman

ONE of mankind's most ver-satile and obedient helpersin the world of practical

affairs turns out to be the lightestparticle of matter known toscience-the electron. Within afew decades of its discovery itsucceeded In claiming as its ownan astonishing number and varietyof tasks, giving rise to an entirelynew art called electronics.

Electrons attain their greatestusefulness when freed frommatter and made to ßlng them-selves through a void inside ag-iass tune. This they do invarious forms of apparatus. Inthe photocell the liberation comesthrough the gentle caress oaf'a rayof Mfrht ; In the. X-ray tube andin the. radio tube (or valve),electrons are literally boiled outof a hot wire.

Thomas Edison, the Americaninventor, observed the latter effectas long ago as 1883, but it wentalmost unnoticed, and twentyyears passed before Sir JohnFleming-fashioned a practicaldevice on this principle. Shortlythereafter. Lee Deforest na-tented the radio tube in what isessentially its modern form.Today it Is difficult to name anyof the sciences or practical artsthat has not found use for thisdevice.

The first indications of theexistence of electron were obtain-ed after the middle of the lastcentury when clever experimentersfound it possible to coax subtle"radiant matter"from ordinarvsubstal1l'es by passing currentf !"Om a spark coil through a fiatstube from which most of thehindering atr had been pumped.

The decisive experiments thatrevealed the nature of this"radiant-matter" (more conven-f. iunally called cathode rays iwere the work of the mild-mannered and gifted English phy-sicist John Joseph Thomson. Hefound what others had looked forwithout success-that the cathoderays could be swerved from theirnormally straight path by meansof electrical and mag-netic forces.

Bending Cathode Rays

F 110M 1 he observed directionand mount of the bendingThomson concluded that

the cathode rays consisted ofcharges of negative electricalcarried by particles of matter.The astonishing ; feature of theresult was that such a particleturned out to be almost twothousand times less massive thanan atom of hydrogen-up tothat time the lightest known bitof matter. Thus, in ;,science came to know thatsomething-even simpler than thesupposedly immutable atom exist-ed in Nature.

Thomson's experiment by itselfwas not capable of disclosing theamount of electricity carried byeach cathode ray particle, orelectron. but in his laboratOl'y antielsewhere investigators set aboutto devise new experiments todetermine this quantity.

Among the many scientists whoworried about the problem wasa young professor at the Uni-versity of Chicago, Robert 1Ililli-kan. He devised, in 1909, anapparatus in which all is sprayed

into the space bet-ween two Hat metalplates and a singledrop is kept underobservation in a mi-croscope. Such adroplet is small, per-hilps a tenth of ahair'shreadthindiam-ester. and so insteador plummeting down-ward Ukea. stone,))Calls through the all'at a leisurely and'constant rate whichis readily measured.

If, now, the metalplates are connected10 an electric batterythe drop will usuallybe observed to alterat once its rate orrai). or to remain

PUTTING ELECTRONS TO WORK-THE ELEMENTS OF AN ELEC-TRON (RADIO) TUBE. Electrical impulses applied to the grid act tocontrol the passage of electrons from the hot wire to the plate. In a radioreceiver, these impulses are produced by the waves sent out from the broad-

casting station.

suspended motionless, or even tobegin to move upward. Thereason is that the process ofspraying the oil has wrenchedelectrons loose from some ofthe atoms and given the excessto others. As a consequence,a drop will generally possess aresultant electric charge, eitherpositive or negative, and so willbe urged upward or downward bythe electrical force existing bet-ween the charged metal plates.

Atomicity Of Electricity

M ILLlKAX'S ap, parnluS wasthus an extremely inge-nious weighing machine, a

million times more accurate thanthe most refined mechanical ba-lance ever constructed.

From the observations it waspossible to compute the amountof electrical charge residing oneach droplet, with the significantresult that these charges in-variably are whole-number mul-tiples of a certain smallest valuP- the so-called charge on theelectron. Mitiikan's experimentshowed, then, that electricity,like matter, possesses a kind ofatomicity, and that the electron isthe basic smallest unit of electro-

Hcation-that can exist by itself.This speck of"radiant matter"discovered Buy Thomson, thisparUcte carrying'a dab of electri-city, turns out to be one of thefundamental constituents of theatoms of all kinds of matterthroughout the universe.

Just before the war, theAmerican scientist, G. R. Harrisonwrote :"Putting electrons towork has put men to work. Thatfour great tnduttriet-thetelephone, the radio, the phono-graph, and the motion picture in-dustries-rest directly on thevacuum tube and could not exist. on SI1 vast a scale without It, i8

usually ignored when new devicesare blamed for technological un-employment."Today, television,radar, electronic computers, theelectron microscope and severalother highly important applica-tions might be added to thè abovetist, and the potentialities of thetiny yet mighty electron areseemingly without end.

(tf you would like to redfurther on this topfc, write to theDivision for the Popularization ofScience, UNESCO, 19, avenueKléber, Parls-16c, France, req..... t-in a free oopy of"R8feren-onEleotrons".)

UNESCO COURIER-Page 10 DECEMBER 1950

IN THE SERVICE OF PEACE :

Andre HONNORAT

(1S68-1950)

by Georges. FRADIER

P AHISIA : \"S in the early twentieswere somewhat loath totake their visitors on a tour

01 the city's southern borders. Amuddy street was all that separ-ated the pleasant"pare Montsou-ris"from the dismantled forti-fications where, amidst rubbleand debris, the vacant lots ofsuburbia aimlessly awaited thespeculators and their blocks oftenement houses. Beyond, midstthe smoke and dirt of factories,lay the"red belt"as Parisianscalled it, a mass of corrugatediron or tarred makeshift hotels,sunk in the pitiless depths ofmisery.

To this barren waste a mansometimes came to ponder, adistinguished-looking man whompassers-by took to be an architector a poet. In point of fact he wasthe Minister of Education. Yetthe passers-by were not mistaken,for André Honnorat was both apoet and a builder. He used towander through the brambles andthe rubble, a tall figure under theheavy skies. His gaze seemed tomiss the ruins and the hovels ;in their stead he saw a spaciouscity, with buildings bordering ontree-lined avenues, on wide sportsgrounds. Down these avenues,through the broad gateways, camegroups of young men and women,laughing, talking together inevery known tongue.

An Instrument Of Peace

This was And ; ;-é Honnorat's dream :a city planned entirely for stu-dents, the pupils of the world's

most cosmopolitan school-the Uni-versity of Paris. Striding over the for-tifications with a friend, the Ministerwas no longer a mere dreamer ; hebecame a prophet : Honnorat couldalmost count the students and mappedhis"cily"down to the last detail.

In the centre, he planned to baildan International House, and a vastHall-Library to replace the humbleloth century church, traditionalmeeting-place of the"nations"ofParis University, which the mediae-val students in their poverty haddedicated to Saint Julian the Pauper.

The thousand year old Sorbonnenever failed to arouse the Minister'senthusiam : his first gesture upontaking office had been to restoreto the University the autonomy whichNapoleon had abolished. The Sor-bonne of which he dreamed was morethan a seat of learning and research,it was to become an instrument ofpeace. The future of peace... the ideaobsessed Honnorat ; he dwelt upon itin all his speeches, at every meeting :"Do yoM beHece that all the problemswhich war has brought before thehuman conscience can really be solv-ed by Government action alone ? Isnot the best solution to teach thepeoples to understand each other ;and to teach such understanding,what better way can be found thanto bring the élite of the youngergeneration into contact with oneanother ?"

Enthusiasm Stimulated

Friends And Benefactors

FOR the general public the Ministerof Education was little more thana respected politician. His career

was fairly typical of that of manyFrench public servants. Coming of apoor family, he had started life as ajournalist and later had been secretaryto several ministers. For forty yearshe represented his native"départe-ment", the mountainous Basses-Alpes,first in the Chamber and later in theSenate. Yet his friends knew Honno-rat to be an extraordinary man. Hewas simple, loyal, sincere. These

LA CITE UNIVERSITAIRE, as André Honnorat visualized it and as it exists today : a cityplanned entirely for students, the pupils of the world's most cosmopolitan school-theUniversity of Paris. Key to plan : 1. Administrative Building. 2. Medical Building.3. International House. 4. United States Foundation. 5. Belgian Students House. 6. NationalInstitute of Agronomy Foundation. 7. japanese House. 8. Danish Students House. 9. SwissFoundation. 10. Swedish Students House. 11. College 01 Spain. 12. Franco-British Foun-dation 13. Argentine Students House. 14. Canadian Students House. 15. E. and L. Deutschde la Meurthe Foundation. 16. Monaco Foundation. 17. French Provinces House. 18. Arme-nian Students House. 19. Dutch College. 20. Indo-Chinese Students House. 21. Cuban

House. 22. Greek Foundation. 23, Sports Field.

qualities alone would probably nothave distinguished him. But thenobility of his character, the warmthof his human sympathy and his powerof vision were truly exceptional.

This creative imagination, which ofall human gifts is perhaps the mostrare, might have been enough in itselfto account for the statesman's extra-ordinary achievements. A UniversityCity in the heart of the"red belt" !The very idea dismayed"serious"people. Yet, in the space of a fewyears, the dream was to come true.By 1925, the now famous"found-ations"were being erected. Theywere to house hundreds and laterthousands of students. Gardens hadreplaced the rubble and debris, andsports grounds were planned.

The venture owed a large measureof its success to André Honnorat'sgift for making friends. He neveronce applied for Government subsi-dies. His enthusiasm was such thathe was always able to stimulategenerosity in others and the Cite Uni-versitaire came into being in muchthe same manner as the mediaevalcathedrals, thanks to the donationsof countless benefactors : Jean Bra-net, David-Weil, Emile Deutsch de laMeurthe, to name but a few of Hon-norat's close collaborators. Finally,in 1936, an imposing InternationalHouse was built ; it owed its existenceto another friend of the founder,John D. Rockefeller Jr.

Such an undertaking would havebeen the lif°_-work of any ordinaryman, but it was only one of Honno-rat's many and varied activities.These included th improvement ofpublic health and social insurance,the promotion of international cultu-ral relations and of historical research.As member of Parliament, he workedto give his constituency roads, postoffices and power plants.

ANDRE HONNORAT. founder of the"University City", in Paris. The word"international"can be used to qualifyhis every endeavour. Even the small-est undertaking was an occasion forhim to overcome some obstacle in the

path of international exchange.

It was at his instigation that, in1915, the French Parliament voted thefirst sums for the anti-tuberculosiscampaign and it was thanks to hisefforts and to those of Léon Bourgeoisthat the first anti-tubercular dispen-saries were organized. As presidentfor many years of the NationalCommittee of Defense against tuber-culosis, he launched the well-knownstamp campaign. This undertaking,which came under heavy criticism,raised 175 million francs last year forFrench sanatoria and dispensaries.

"He Lived Intensely"

A GREAT lover of history, Honnoratundertook the task of preparingthe ground for future historians.

He could not bear to think that com-ing generations should be hamperedin their research by the lack of indis-pensable data, and he therefore setabout assembling and distributing tocompetent bodies a heterogeneouscollection of contemporary objects,including books, papers, catalogues,statuettes and even toys and oil lamps- which would be of vital interestto future historians.

.. He lived intensely", said one ofhis friends,"poised between past andpresent". It can therefore be readilyunderstood that he had a particularfondness for the Society of Historyof the Great War and for the librarywhich he founded in 1916 and whichis called today the Bureau of Inter-national and Contemporary Research.

International... the word recursagain and again in each of Honnorat'sventures. The smallest undertakingserved him as a pretext for breakingdown frontiers and for overcomingsome new obstacle on the path ofinternational exchange. At his instig-ation, the Government adopted mea-

THE INTERNATIONAL HOUSE,"heart"of the University City and symbol of the ideawhich inspired André Honnorat-"to teach understanding, what better way can be found

than to bring the elite of the younger generation into contact with one another".

sures to enable the children of Frenchimmigrants in Mexico to completetheir education in France. This ledhim to plan wider cultural exchanges.He was responsible for the Franco-Norwegian school at Rouen,, theFranco-Norwegian and Franco-DanishAssociations in Paris, and was instru-mental in setting up special bodies atthe Sorbonne for the study of Ger-manic, Italian and Japanese civiliz-ations. Finally, it was on his initia-tive that the National Foundation forthe Study of Foreign Civilizationsand Sciences was created.

''You Have

A Responsibility"

THEN came the war of 1939, andAndré Honnorat saw the tempo-rary destruction of many of his

achievements. Living in retirement,he continued to work and hope, aidedby his wife and a few friends. Withthe liberation of France he returnedto Parliament and to tasks too heavyfor his age and health. His life'swork was once more a living reality ;yet Honnorat was not content to rest.He felt the urgency of strengtheningand enlarging his accomplishments.The Cite Universitaire, which hadbeen closed for five years, was reopen-ed and students from thirty nationsfilled its 22 houses.

Honnorat now sought to expand theUniversity of Paris, hemmed in by itsold walls. For this new project hedemanded 160 acres of land. Replyingto parliamentary critics who consider-ed his proposals premature, he said :

"IN, in 1840, you had been asked toappropriate land lor the PasteurInstitute, you would have relused.You have a responsibility towards thescholars 01 a hundred years hence.How are you going to accomodatethem ?"

André Honnorat was now an oldman of failing health, and the bur-den of public office proved too heavyfor him. He was obliged to abandonmany of his ofncial duties. Thoughhe no longer had the strength to makehistory, his power of vision was asstrong as ever. Courteous, sensitive,understanding, he still made friendswherever he went.

H was now over eighty but heworked, as he had done all his life,from four o'clock in the morning tomidnight.

Faith In"These Men"

TJ ARLY in the summer of 1950 hishealth failed and the doctorsordered him to rest. But from

the room which he had finally accept-ed at the Cite Universitaire he con-tinued to watch over the freedom, thewelfare and even the finances of hisfoundation. The war in Korea affect-ed him far more than his own suffer-ings... This world is mad", he said,.. these men want to die". Yet henever despaired of.. these. men".. Henever lost faith in the United Nationsand international organizations andtried to help them to the end. Oneof the last things he said to his doc-tor, between two painful attacks, wasthis :.. You know, the more I thinkabout the World Health Organization,the more I realize it must succeed".

He died on the 24th of July. Twomouths earlier, disregarding alladvice, he left his sick-bed to receivethe Queen of Holland at the CiteUniversitaire. He wanted to talk onceagain to"his students"to talk ofpeace-."true peace, to which allmen aspire is not born of writtentex ? s alone, it must come from a newattztude of mind... from new linksbetween the young minds of allnation...

DECEMBER 1950 Page IN-UNESCO COURIER

NDONESIA PLANS EXPANDED E'DUCATION PROGRAMME

ALMOST a year ago, on December27, 1949, Indonesia became allindependent state and, as theRepublic of the United States of

Indonesia, took its place among thefamily of nations. During the previousdecade, large parts of it had been cutoff from normal contact with othercountries and had suffered heavydestruction through the war. Indonesiawas therefore in urgent need of reha-bilitation and technical assistance ineducation, public health, agricultureand in general, of what its Premier,Mohammed Hatta described as"socialengineering".

Facing up to such needs and recog-nizing that the prosperity of acountry depends on the qualities andabilities of its people, the IndonesianGovernment is today seeking to providethe country with an efficient system ofeducation and training.

Unesco, whose Fifth General Con-ference admitted Indonesia as aMember State this year, has alreadytaken an active part in helping theseefforts. Last May, a Unesco represen-tative was among the members of theUnited Nations Joint Technical Assis-tance Mission sent to consult with theIndonesian authorities on their existingplans for economic development and todetermine in what fields assistance wasmost needed.

Today, Indonesia is one cf the 12countries which Unesco is helpingunder the first part of its technicalassistance programme. An educationteam is setting in motion a trainingprogramme for teachers who will beneeded in re-settlement areas and aspart of a joint United Nations mission.Unesco is drawing up a fundamentaleducation demonstration project and ateachers'training centre for schoolswhich will be needed in those areas.

Unesco will also help the IndonesianGovernment to establish an adequateprimary school system. (At presentonly 25 per cent of the country's schoolage children receive instruction andthe adult illiteracy rate is estimated atfrom 50 to 90 per cent.)

UNIVERSITY LIFE IN INDONESIA

TODDY, Indonesia is stimulating and encouraging all forms of higher education to ensure thetraining of the experts it will need in every held of its future economic development. The maincentres of higher education are two universities, the"Gadjah Mada"University, a national found-

ation established in Djogjakarta, and the University of Indonesia, established in 1'946 at Djakarta. In ad-dition, there are seven academies and institutes providing instruction in political sciences, forestry,meteorology, physical culture, mathematics, chemistry and physics, drawing and economic science, aswell as a teachers'college, all of which are attached to one or other of the universities.

Some aspects of the life and work of Indonesian university students are shown in the photographspublished on this page, which were taken from an album prepared by the Indonesian Government asa gift for Unesco and presented to M. Jaime Torres Bodet, the Director-General, by H. E. Mr. Nazir'Satuk Pamontjak, Indonesian Ambassador in Paris.

0 Young students studying in the art library which isbeing established at the University of Indonesia, encouragedby gift books from Unesco. 6 Microtomic work beingcarried out at the laboratory for pathological anatomy-partof the Medical Faculty situated at Djakarta. 0 The"DivineMaster"and his Indonesian"pupil"-a student of archae-

ology at the Faculty of Literature and Philosophy. 0 Theobservatory at Lembang which has been put at the disposalof the University of Indonesia by the Astronomical Asso-ciation. This observatory's telescope is of unique impor-tance because of the sector of the sky it covers-the transitof the Northern and Southern Hemisphere.

Mew have not yet won all therighôs stated in the UniversalDeclaration ; and even those

which seem most secure were notcome by easily. Leaders were neededto define each 01 our liberties andmen with open and generous mindswere especially wanted to formulatethem. Among the anniversaries lorthis month 01 december some nameshave been chosen here which sym-bolize the age-long struggle orhumanity tolerance, peace andjustice.

MICHEL VOROSMARTY."Every individual is entitled to a nation-

ality."But when this Hungarian poetwas born on 1st December 1800, his peoplehad not the right to claim Hungariannationality. Vorosmarty helped by worthycolleagues, worked all his life to arousehis country from somnolence and servitude.He wrote an epic,"The Flight of Zalan"to celebrate the. heroic conquest of theplains of the Tisza and Danube by theancient Magyars He revealed Hungarianletters to the world, translated Shake-speare, and adapted the French Roman-tics. As a deputy in the 1848 Revolution,he fought till the last day for liberationand, after his country's defeat, spent twoyears in prison. His funeral was theopportunity for a national protest againstthe Hapsburg domination and his centen-ary was feted gloriously throughout allHungary."THE ADVANCE OF HUMAN

THOUGHT".Without real hope for the future advance

of society it is doubful whether men

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in (/) JH : Jl. In6...

would fight very hard for their libertiesand their rights. A certain optimism isneeded. On 11th December 1750, JacquesTurgot, spoke in Latin at the Sorbonne on"The successive stages in the progress ofhuman thought" :

"The language and the writing.... fromall the special branches of learningcreate a common treasure that one gener-ation passes on to the next. so that theheritage is constantly increasing."

"Even in the midst of havoc... peoplebecome more civilized, the human mindbecomes enlightened, isolated nationscome closer together, commerce and poli-tics finally unite all parts of the globe.and mankind as a whole continues to moveforward through alternate periods of calmand trouble. Progress may be halting, butit is always towards greater heights".

EVERY PERSON HAS THE RIGHTTO WORK..."

... To free choice of employment... toprotection against unemployment..." (art.23). To help make these rights a realityis the responsibility of the InternationalLabour Organization which four yearsago, on 14th December 1946, joined forceswith the United Nations. But, the Or-ganization, under a slightly differentname, had already been in existence27 years and had never ceased fightingfor the principles that the United Nations

were to restate in the Universal Declar-ation. Since 1919, the Organization hascontinued to declare that work is not mer-chandise ; that freedom of expression andassembly is essential to progress ; that thewretched plight of workers in one countrythreatens the prosperity of workers in allother countries, that the light for just andfavourable conditions of work requires thejoint efforts of all governments and allworkers.

ARSNE D'ARSONVAL.When d'Arsonval died on 30th Decem-

ber 1940, more than one journalist hesit-ated before the long list of this learnedman's works. It seemed scarcely crediblethat one man should have been respons-ible for so many discoveries. He workedwith Claude Bernard and Pasteur, but hewas also distinguished as an electricalscientist. He invented the galvanometerwith a mobile circuit, used in canalyzing

the electric currents of the brain. Notedas one of the founders of endocrinology,he was also known as the designer of oneof the earliest glides and as the inventorof a battery for submarines. But his chieffame rests in work which led to the in-mention of an"electrical bistoury", ascalpel for surgeons. All his work wasdevoted to giving a concrete meaning tothis"right to health"about which menwould know so little, if learned men didnot work to make it a reality.

If PROMOTE UNDERSTANDINGTOLERANCE AND FRIENDSHIPAMONG ALL NATIONS."

Three hundred and fifty years ago apoet died whose work and life give ad-mirable evidence of the philosophical andreligious tolerance which made sixteenthcentury India so noteworthy. Work wentbeyond mere.. tolerance" and contributedto Dadu's mutual understanding of thehighest kind. Some say he was born intoa Brahman family ; others that his fatherwas Moslem, but all agree that this mys-tic belonged to the Hindu faith during hislife. This did not deter him from hisaffection for the great Moslem poet Kabir :"The words of Kabir are as true to thespirit as they are pleasant to the ear. Theybring me happiness". He spent his life intravelling across the Indian empire andcomposed his poems in Hindi, In Pujani, inSanskrit... As was true of Kabir's work,Dadu's poems transcended all the bondsof orthodoxy. Dadu continually stressedthe universality of love :"The world isfull of divine truth"he used to say. Hedied at Naraina, in the Rajputana, mur-muring one of his poems :"Spirit. 0 myspirit, for the love of your Lord, you haveshaken oll all seeming..."

UNESCO COURIER-Page 12 DECEMBER 1950

"WHENEVER. THEKE A ! R. E

SllXlllElEN CHtLDRJEN"

by Jean KEIM

A TYPICAL VILLAGE SCHOOL IN FINNISH LAPLAND, where there are still about 6, 000 Lamp.Most of the girls in the class are wearing the national head-dress.

err our country, everyone can read except small children, idiots and theblind", remarked an official in the Finnish Ministry of Education."but", he went on,"the blind can read well enough by Breathe".

As far back as 1686 the Church in Finland had made it compulsoryfor everyone to learn to read. The priests refused to give Confirmation to thosewho were illiterate and marriage by a priest was denied them. It was custom-ary for the pastor to hold annual examinations for his flock and the resultswere written down in the parish records. Young folk who refused to go toschool were put in the stocks on Sunday at the entrance to the church. Kivi,the great Finnish writer who founded the theatre and the Finnish novel, givesa vivid account in"T1 ; e Seven Brothers"of a battle royal between a Rectorand seven boys who refused to learn to read.

In the year 1866 the Church relin-quished its role of educator andteaching became the responsibility ofthe municipal authorities. The lawof compulsory schooling, however,only dates back to 1921, the yearwhen the Republic of Finland cameinto being. To-day, though thepopulation is extremely scattered,with only eight inhabitants to thesquare mile in some regions, illite-racy is non-existent.

Bv Boat And Reindeer

SCHOOLING presents unusual problemsin country areas where manyfamilies live in lonely mountain

valleys, far removed from their

nearest neighbour. By law, however,a school must be built in any regionwhere there are sixteen children ofschool-going age. Attendance is com-pulsory for all who live within aradius of approximately three miles.The children arrive by bicycle, onfoot, and in wintertime on skis ;sometimes special buses are provided,and in districts where the terrain isdifficult, there are omnibus-boats.

In North Lapland, Finnish childrengo to school each morning in sledgesdrawn by reindeer. All day long thereindeer wait quietly in the snow, tillthe time comes to take their smallmasters back home.

The children eat their lunch at

FINLAND IS A COUNTRY OF THOUSANDS OF ISLANDS AND LAKES-continuous water-ways that constitute, especially in the less developed northern regions, the most importantmeans of communications. Yet, despite transport difficulties and an extremely scatteredpopulation, adequate educational facilities are available even in out of the way places

thanks so a progressive policy which gives priority to the needs of youth.

THE NUMBER OF SCHOOL CHILDREN IN FINLAND 0"'. 0,. :. : : 0.."...... v. :""...... 81..Subjects taught in elementary state schools are being increased to include ccoKing andhousehold tasks. One free meal a day is provided in every state school. Above, a modern

elementary school in Helsinki, the capital.

MARY HAD A LITTLE... REINDEER. In North Lapland, Finnish children go to school insledges drawn by reindeer. All day long the reindeer wait quietly in the snow till the

time comes to take their small masters back home.

school. Finnish authorities believetheir country was the first in theworld to pass legislation requiring allschools to provide a free midday mealsufficient to satisfy healthy youngappetites.

Books and general school require-ments have been supplied without costfor many years. Boarding schools areprovided for children who live morethan three miles from school. Invillages where such an arrangementis impracticable, free board and lodg-ing is found in a neighbour's home.

Local authorities control educationand all school activities. A schoolcommittee of five persons, includingat least one teacher, is elected by theMunicipal Council. The administr-ation of each school is in the handsof a group of seven people, six ofwhom are parents of the pupils andone a representative of the teachingfaculty.

Holiday On Skis

THE State Education Departmentacts in an advisory capacity.According to the wealth of the

community and its inhabitants, gov-ernment aid plays a greater or lesserrole ; but in no case does it cover allthe expenses. The State paysteachers'salaries and provides 20 %of the finance for the building of newschools and 40 % for maintenance.Government loans are also grantedand the State reimburses two-thirdsof the money paid out for eq1ipmentand financial aid to poor children ; ineach case the State contribution isgenerally proportionate to the size ofthe school.

A child spends eight years at pri-mary school. There are 36 schoolweeks in a year broken by the Christ-mas and summer holidays. The chil-dren are also given a special week'sholiday just before Spring-duringthe best skiing season.

Hygiene plays an important part inschool life. Even the most remoteschools have nurses, who also serveas welfare officers. The children arevaccinated and receive special eye anddental care from visiting doctors atregular intervals.

I paid a visit to one of hese coun-try schools, a large one-storey house.Fair-haired healthy children werehurrying out across the verandah.The classroom was spacious, clean andwell equipped. Some explanatorynotes from the previous lessons stillremained on the blackboard. A blaz-

ing fire roared in the big stove. Itwas one of the happiest and pleasant-est schoolrooms I had ever visited.

Youth Has Priority

FINLAND, to-day, with 4 million in-habitants, has nearly 16, 000 teach-ers in its primary schools which

serve more than 500, 000 childrenbetween the ages of seven andfifteen. Ninety-two per cent of theseschoolchildren learn Finnish, 8 %learn Swedish. Both these languagesare officially recognized, and thiscreates numerous difficulties in givinginstruction in the langllage requestedby the parents.

It is astonishing to note the greatextent to which children develop theirfondness for reading at school. Outof the 2, 000 new books published inFinnish every year-a surprisinglyhigh figure for such a small popul-ation-more than 10 % are booksfor children. These books are usuallywell illustrated not only with theirown national heroes but also with thegreat figures found in children'sbooks all over the world.

Finlanders love their children andwant to ensure that their future willbe a bright and happy one. The pre-sent generation was compelled toendure several wars in order to winand keep its freedom. Normality isgradually being restored. The needsof youth have priority in Finland :for, in the words of the Finnish poet,Elmer Diktonius :"As long as chil-dren smile, the Universe will continueto live".