WILDLIFE NEWS 
 
 
   Kalmbach RIeports on UNESCO 
   Dr. E. R. Kalmbach represented the 
Wildlife Society at the first regional 
conference of UNESCO      at Denver, 
Colorado, May 15, 16 and 17, 1947. His 
excellent report on the conference 
follows. 
  UNESCO had its beginning in the 
London conference of the United Na- 
tions in 1945. Thereafter there were 
several preparatory meetings and in 
November 1946 the first formal meeting 
of UNESCO was held in Paris. 
  To implement our contribution to 
UNESCO, President Truman signed 
Public Law 565 on June 30, 1946, au- 
thorizing the United States to accept 
membership in UNESCO. The United 
States National Commission        for 
UNESCO, created by that legislation, 
held its first conference in Philadelphia 
in March 1947. This set a pattern for 
regional conferences also authorized 
under Public Law 565. The Denver 
meeting is the first of the regional 
conferences to be held and was signifi- 
cant for that very reason. 
  The   objectives and   purposes  of 
UNESCO may best be conveyed by the 
following pertinent extracts from the 
preamble to the Constitution of that 
Organization: 
   "The governments of the States, 
parties to this Constitution, on behalf 
of their peoples declare: 
   "that since wars begin in the minds 
of men, it is in the minds of men that 
the defenses of peace must be con- 
structed; ***** that ignorance of each 
other's ways and lives has been a com- 
mon cause, through the history of 
mankind, of that suspicion and mis- 
trust between peoples of the world 
through which their differences have 
all too often broken into war; ***** 
that the wide diffusion of culture, and 
the education of humanity for justice 
and liberty and peace are indispensable 
to the dignity of man. * * * * * and that 
the peace must therefore be founded, if 
it is not to fail, upon the intellectual 
and moral solidarity of mankind." 
  The Preamble goes on to state that 
  "for these reasons the States, parties 
to this Constitution, believing in full 
and equal opportunities for education 
for all, in the unrestricted pursuit of 
objective truth, and in the free ex- 
change of ideas and knowledge, are 
agreed and determined to develop and 
to increase the means of communi- 
cation between their peoples and to 
employ these means for the purpose 
of mutual understanding and a truer 
and more perfect knowledge of each 
other's lives." (With no intention of 
deprecating these most worthy ideals, 
but rather to set forth an undeniable 
reality, your representative should like 
to quote from Dr. Howard Wilson's re- 
marks at the opening plenary session 
that "despite the need for culture and 
education, it must be recognized that 
modern wars are not started by illiter- 
ates:") 
   The Denver Conference was held, 
 not only to acquaint people living in 
 the Mountain-Plains area with the ob- 
 jectives, organization and programs of 
 UNESCO, but also to formulate plans 
 for action locally. The area embraced 
 by this conference included the States 
 
 
of Colorado, "Idaho, Kansas,ý Nebraska, 
New   Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah     and 
Wyoming. The attendance of more 
than 1800 delegates taxed to the limit 
the facilities of the Shirley-Savoy 
Hotel and testified to the generous and 
popular response displayed. As plan- 
ned, group meetings were also held at 
other nearby places. 
  The convening committee consisted 
of Dr. Milton S. Eisenhower, Chairman 
of   the  National  Commission    for 
UNESCO     and President of Kansas 
State College, Dr. Ben M. Cherrington, 
temporary chairman of the first meet- 
ing of the National Commission on 
UNESCO, and Director of the Social 
Science Foundation of the University 
of Denver, and Dr. Reuben G. Gustav- 
son, member at large on the National 
Commission   and Chancellor of the 
University of Nebraska. They were 
assisted by a very able Secretariat re- 
cruited largely from the student body 
of the University of Denver. An ex- 
cessive amount of reporting, typing and 
mimeographing was carried out expe- 
ditiously by the Secretariat during and 
after the Conference. 
  The opening plenary session (May 
15) was devoted to the usual introduc- 
tory and welcoming remarks after 
which Howland Sargeant, Deputy Ass't. 
Secretary for Public Affairs of the 
State Department, gave a history of 
UNESCO     and   its objectives.  He 
pointed out that UNESCO, in effect, 
was a    combined   effort for peace 
through   education  of governments, 
communities, and individuals. The im- 
petus, however, comes primarily from 
the two latter groups, and the govern- 
ment itself undertakes only     those 
things which private agencies cannot 
do. 
  This was followed by an excellent 
talk by Howard Wilson, Associate Di- 
rector, Division of Education, Carneaie 
Endowment, on the origin of UNESCO 
at the London conference in 1945. He 
pointed out that up to the present time 
the scientific groups had progressed 
further than those dealing with social 
sciences, and he looked forward with 
expectation to the next general meet- 
ing of UNESCO in Mexico City in 
November, 1947. 
  At this point the Conference divided 
into separate subject-matter forums of 
which there were eight, followed on 
the afternoon of the 16th and the 
morning of the 17th by nine organiza- 
tional meetings. Of the former your 
representative attended those devoted 
to the Sciences and of the latter, the 
Professional Groups. 
  At the first meeting of the Science 
Group   Mr. Howland    Sargeant dis- 
cussed in further detail UNESCO's pro- 
gram in the field of science. The so- 
called Hylean Amazon project in which 
UNESCO proposed to set up an Inter- 
national Scientific Commission in con- 
sultation with Brazil, Colombia, Bo- 
livia, Ecuador, P e r u, Venezuela, 
France, Great Britain, Netherlands, 
and the United States to study all as- 
petts of research in the development 
of the upper Amazon basin precipitated 
much discussion. There were numer- 
ous: inquiries regarding the pertinence 
of such a program with respect to the 
 
 
overall objectives of UNESCO. Several 
delegates (including your representa- 
tive) felt that this program savored of 
exploitation of an area in one country 
that might arouse resentment in others. 
Furthermore, it might not have the 
world-wide application   its sponsors 
claimed, and it closely simulated scien- 
tific projects sponsored by individual 
governments or private agencies. This 
misgiving was well expressed by Hugo 
Rodek of the University of Colorado, 
who stated that he was under the im- 
pression that UNESCO's objective in 
science was "to make more scientists 
atc q u a i n t e d with more scientists 
throughout the world-better." With 
that the subject was soon dropped but 
the tenor of the group towards pro- 
grams of that kind was again expressed 
when a somewhat similar research 
project was suggested for the troubled 
area of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Greece. 
It was emphatically voted down. 
  Other important UNESCO projects 
are contemplated in the establishment 
of field science cooperative offices in 
China, India, and Latin America, par- 
ticularly at points where science and 
its facilities are at a low ebb. The 
translating, abstracting, and the ex- 
change of scientific documents, the 
publication  of summaries, and    the 
popularization of science on an inter- 
national scale are contemplated. 
  Highlighting the program of papers 
presented at the Science and Profes- 
sional Groups were Dr. Walter 0. 
Roberts' address on the work being 
done at Climax, Colorado, astronomical 
observatory; Dr. Norris Bradbury's 
discussion of the research at the Los 
Alamos Atomic Research Laboratory; 
and Dr. Harold C. Lueth's paper on 
war developments in medicine. 
  Throughout the discussions precipi- 
tated by the papers as well as in the 
general conversations of the meetings 
a desire and need was expressed for a 
better interchange of scientific infor- 
mation with Russia. No one advanced 
a specific formula as to how this could 
be accomplished unless through the 
ultimate extension of UNESCO facili- 
ties in that direction. 
  A summarization of the action taken 
by the Professional Group is best set 
forth by the recommendations coming 
out of its sessions. These, somewhat in 
abbreviated language, follow: 
   (1) That the United States Commis- 
sion for UNESCO, in conjunction with 
the State Department, explore ways of 
obtaining funds for the interchange of 
persons of highest proficiency in all 
fields of knowledge and at all levels of 
training from student to academician as 
a project of highest importance for 
furthering the aims of UNESCO. 
   (2) That the scale of world-wide 
interchange of persons be vastly ex- 
panded and that the expansion be 
carried out on the basis of the needs 
of rehabilitation and reconstruction of 
war-devastated nations. 
   (3) That the delegates at this don- 
ference transmit to their respective 
organizations and their communities 
the aims of the program of the inter- 
change of persons and that they lay 
plans for accomplishing this, perhaps 
 
 
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Summer, 1947