DIVISION OF INTERCOURSE AND EDUCATION REPORT OF THE ACTING DIRECTOR TO THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: A year and a half of devastating and unprecedentedly severe and extensive war has wholly transformed the conditions in Europe and Asia upon which the earlier work of this Division has been so largely based. All the usual and normal relationships of commerce and friendship, even among those nations that are not directly involved in the war as belligerents, have been so disrupted and altered that it has been necessary to devise quite new means for carrying on any form of international work whatsoever. In a particularly striking way this is true of the work of the Division of Intercourse and Education. It is plain that during the progress of the war any attempt to carry on the efforts to develop and extend international friendship between the nations now belligerent, would be not only quite futile but wholly misunderstood and therefore harmful. Moreover, the interests of the neutral European states are so closely interrelated with those of the belligerent countries that many forms of activity in Europe which had formerly been thought effective have of necessity been discontinued even in the neutral states themselves. Militarism in its most frightful form holds in its relentless grasp a large portion of the world. That this is due to circumstances over which the great mass of people had no control is unfortunately and sadly true. Even science is turned from its normal course and we are compelled to witness scientific knowledge and ingenuity, except when exhibited in medicine and surgery, chiefly bent to the destruction of human life and property. No one is wise enough to foresee all the changes, geographic, economic, intellectual, political and moral which will result from this state of affairs. The great war has put back the hands on the clock of progress and has rendered wholly uncertain those predictions as to human betterment, human improvement and increasing human satisfaction with the conditions of life that but lately seemed so well founded. The change in the state of the minds of men and the change in their standards and aims of conduct will perhaps be even greater than the more easily observed minor changes that can be seen or measured or weighed. The effect of the war upon public opinion in the United States has been very striking. In so far as it has served to arouse American public opinion to an interest in international affairs and to an appreciation and understanding of the interdependence of the United States and the other civilized nations of the world, the war has had a beneficial effect upon the people of the United States. In so far as it may have led them to lose faith and confidence in their historic ideals and policies, or in so far as it may have hardened their hearts against any sister nation or sister people, its effects have been damaging in the extreme. This is not the place to speak of the effects of the war upon American industry and American commerce, but whatever those effects may have been they are temporary and quite negligible in importance when put in contrast with the effects upon American political policies and upon American political character. The people of the United States have come to understand perhaps for the first time the full significance of international law and of breaches of that law. They have come to understand for the first time that those sound and valuable principles which have so long prevailed in the law that governs individuals must be extended to cover the law which deals with nations and that a wrong committed by one nation against another is not only a legal injury to the nation against which the wrong is directed, but a breach of the peace and good order of the community of nations and therefore a legal injury to every nation. The time has come to extend by appropriate and enforceable sanctions the principles of the criminal law to the conduct of civilized nations in their relations one to another. At a time when it has been necessary to discontinue the work of this Division in Europe and in Asia, it has been no small satisfaction to turn with renewed interest and more concentrated attention to the opportunities for service in connection with the relations between the people of the United States and the peoples of the other American republics. The chief constructive work of the Division since the outbreak of the European war has been in this important field and the results that have already followed are in high degree satisfactory. Administration of the Division IN THE UNITED STATES The offices of the Division and of the American Association for International Conciliation are maintained in the building at 407 West 117th Street, New York, which also contains the offices of the Division of Economics and History. The annual rental of the building is $1,600. The growth of the Pan American Division of the American Association for International Conciliation has necessitated the rental of additional office room in the neighborhood at an annual cost of $660. The relation between the work which the Division of Intercourse and Education carries on directly and that which it carries on through the American Association for International Conciliation is so close that easy and constant communication between the two offices is of great importance. In addition to a large correspondence the past year has brought a vast amount of literature on the causes and conduct of the war and on equitable terms of peace. This literature has been studied and classified. From time to time all that has permanent value is sent to the executive offices at Washington to become a part of the main library of the Endowment. Cuttings from newspapers and periodicals are mounted and indexed for easy reference. Copies of important letters and reports are sent to the Trustees for their confidential information. Correspondence is regularly maintained with leaders of opinion in all parts of the world. Books and pamphlets of an educational nature and important official government documents have been distributed for the information of public opinion in this country and elsewhere. IN EUROPE The European Bureau at 24 rue Pierre Curie, Paris, has done nothing more than preserve the skeleton of its organization. It has been impossible to attempt anything other than to collect and classify publications and fugitive material relating to the war. The vigorous and interesting activities of the European Bureau were brought to an abrupt end on August 1, 1914. The Secretary General, M. Prudhommeaux, the Secretary, M. Puech, and the caretaker, M. Hamme, were all called for military service in defense of France. M. Hamme was wounded in battle, taken prisoner and subsequently died in a prison camp. In the absence of the Secretary General and of the Secretary, Madame Puech, with the constant aid and advice of Baron d'Estournelles de Constant, has carried on the correspondence of the Bureau and has given devoted attention to all necessary duties and has discharged them in a most efficient manner. Assistance has been given to many foreigners in France, including a number of Americans who were in need of aid. The Acting Director has been kept fully informed of the progress of events and of public opinion in France. Of particular value has been the regular correspondence between Baron d'Estournelles de Constant and the New York office, which has covered all phases of the war and all important manifestations of public opinion in France. Until peace is restored the European Bureau will make no effort to do anything more than has been done during the past year and a half. The financial reports of the European Bureau for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1915, show the following disbursements: Administration expenses, including salaries of Secretary Subventions to societies, individuals, and periodicals.... L'Enigme Allemande Total for Division of Intercourse and Education.... Total disbursements of Bureau for fiscal year ending fr. 34,229.75 65,239.31 19.792.80 16.057.50 4,000.00 139,319.36 427.80 fr. 139,747.16 THE ADVISORY COUNCIL IN EUROPE Owing to the war no attempt has been made to hold a meeting of the Advisory Council during the past year, and indeed such a meeting would be quite impossible. Many members of the Council, however, have kept in touch with the Acting Director by correspondence, and they have supplied much valuable information as to war conditions and as to the state of public opinion. The death on October 12, 1915, of M. Paul Eyschen, President of the Government of Luxemburg, was a great loss to the Advisory Council in Europe, and one which will be felt with particular keenness when it is possible for the Advisory Council to resume its active work. THE EUROPEAN EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE No meetings of the executive committee of the Advisory Council in Europe have been held or attempted since the outbreak of the war. Work in Europe LE BUREAU INTERNATIONAL PERMANENT DE LA PAIX, BERNE L'OFFICE CENTRAL DES ASSOCIATIONS INTERNATIONALES, BRUSSELS The work of these two organizations has naturally been greatly affected by the war. Through the European Bureau the sum of fr. 12,500 was paid to Le Bureau International de la Paix and the sum of fr. 18,750 to L'Office Central des Associations Internationales in support of their work for the quarter beginning July 1, 1914, and ending September 30, 1914. In view of the evident futility of any further attempt to carry on work in Europe during the war, no other allotments have been made to these organizations. A special allotment of six thousand (6,000) dollars was made to Senator La Fontaine, in order to enable him to meet certain emergency payments in connection with the clerical staff of these organizations, and a personal honorarium of two thousand (2,000) dollars was made to Senator La Fontaine, in recognition of his long and distinguished personal services to the cause of international peace. The meeting of Le Bureau International de la Paix, which was to be held in Vienna in August, 1914, was necessarily postponed. This meeting had been arranged for at a special meeting of the Berne Bureau held in March, 1914, at which time a number of important changes in the statutes were adopted and made part of the permanent constitution of the Bureau. Among these changes was included provision for a new and enlarged council to be chosen in accordance with a more satisfactory system than that hitherto prevailing. The election of this council will take place at the next regular meeting of the Bureau. UNION INTERPARLEMENTAIRE, BRUSSELS Since the summer of 1914 the offices of the Union Interparlementaire have been maintained at Christiania, Norway, to which city Dr. Christian L. Lange, the permanent secretary, removed when the invading army approached Brussels. Dr. Lange has kept in close touch with members of the Union through correspondence and personal visits both in the belligerent and neutral countries. Early in 1914 plans had been made to hold the formal meeting in 1915 in Canada and the United States. The war, however, compelled the abandonment of these plans. In April and May, 1915, Dr. Lange made a trip through Holland, Belgium, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Switzerland, France and England, and sent to the Acting Director a full report of the observations made by him and of his personal conferences with leading statesmen and representatives of opinion. At the request of the Acting Director, Dr. Lange made a similar trip during September and October, 1915, visiting Holland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France and England. Conversations with well informed persons in each of these countries made it possible for Dr. Lange to send to the Acting Director a second confidential report, dealing in detail with conditions and the state of public opinion in both the belligerent and the neutral countries. Copies of these confidential reports were sent promptly to each Trustee of the Carnegie Endowment. INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION LEAGUE, LONDON The educational work of the International Arbitration League has been carried on in spite of the war. A large number of addresses have been delivered in various parts of Great Britain for the purpose of arousing public opinion to the necessity of providing ways and means of preventing any repetition of the ghastly tragedy now being enacted in Europe. An annual subvention of $1,000 has been granted in support of the work of this League. THE NATIONAL PEACE COUNCIL, LONDON One result of the war has been to bring into closer relationship the work of the various organizations in Great Britain that have long been laboring for the betterment of international relations. On June 30, 1914, the National Peace Council was the central organization for forty-three societies. months after the outbreak of the war this number had increased to fifty, and the Secretary, Carl Heath, was in personal relations with every effective organization of like purpose in Great Britain. |