Catalogue description Universities Bureau of the British Empire, British National and International Committees on Intellectual Co-operation, and Related Bodies: Minutes, Papers and Reports

The International Committee on Intellectual Co-operation was created at the 1921 Assembly of the League of Nations to "further international co-operation in the whole sphere of the intellect, of art, science, learning and literature".

As the Committee could effect little by its annual meetings at Geneva, in 1926 the International Institute of Intellectual Co-operation was established with a permanent staff at Paris to carry out the projects of the International Committee. The Institute was largely subsidised by the French Government.

In 1922, the International Committee persuaded various nations to form committees, from which delegates were sent every three or four years to the Annual Conferences of the International Committee to report on the state of intellectual life within their respective countries, primarily in order that the International Committee might give advice. Gradually, the value of these National Committees became apparent, and eventually forty-two were established.

Questions relating to Great Britain were answered by the Universities Bureau of the British Empire until November 1928, when, following a suggestion received by Professor Gilbert Murray (President of the International Committee on Intellectual Co-operation from 1928) from the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, the British National Committee was founded. The original members of the Committee were chosen from the royal institutions, with Sir Frederic Kenyon (British Academy) as Chairman, but subsequently Sir Frank Heath and Sir Cecil Harcourt-Smith were co-opted in their individual capacities.

The British Committee acted as an advisory body to His Majesty's Government on various scientific affairs; it also administered a small grant made by the British Council for Relations with Other Countries to facilitate the exchange of teachers and co-ordinated the work of several associations for this purpose. The Committee formed links with the Rome Institute of Educational Photography and the British Film Institute, and also established a National Committee to act in liaison with various associations and institutions on folk arts and crafts.

At the first general conference of the National Committees on Intellectual Co-operation in 1929, the British delegation pressed for a re-organisation of both National and International Committees, with the result that, in addition to other reforms, an executive committee of the International Committee was formed in 1931 and the status of National Committees was raised so that they should be more closely linked with the International Organisation.

Substantial financial support was lacking and the British National Committee sought a grant of £5,000 per annum for three years from the British Government of which £4,000 per annum was intended as a contribution to the International Organisation. The Board of Education failed to sponsor the proposal, however, and the government, in view of current economy measures, not only refused the application but also reduced by a half the original grant of £300 made by the Foreign Office in 1929.

The British National Committee ceased to function at the outbreak of the Second World War.