Four ceremonies show measure of Netherlands support for Unesco
Four ceremonies show measure of Netherlands support for Unesco
The Director-General of Unesco, M. Jaime Torres Bodet, made a special journey to Holland last month to attend four important meetings and ceremonies there associated with the work of Unesco.
The primary reason for his visit was the annual conference of the Netherlands National Commission for co-operation with Unesco, held in the Peace Palace at The Hague on November 7. M. Torres Bodet, who made the opening speech, paid tribute to Holland when he said :
"The intelligence of your people, as much as history and geography, has made of the Netherlands a meeting ground for many great cultures of the Western world. But you have given your very personal impress to their alloy. Enriched by such contributions, whether they came singly or at intervals, your primary concern has been to express alike in painting and in literature those universal values which genius can discern in things in themselves most individualistic."
The Director-General also spoke at the Students' Congress on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights held at Leyden University.
Other engagements in his busy three-days itinerary were the inauguration of a Unesco Information and Documentation Centre at Amsterdam, set up by the Netherlands National Commission, and the opening of a Unesco Exhibition in the Municipal Museum in the same city.
The smooth-running arrangement of this concentrated programme was largely due to the initial work of Professor Kruyt, President of the Netherlands National Commission, a member of his country's delegation to Unesco General Conference. Dr. Bender, Head of the Cultural Relations Department of the Ministry of Education, and Dr. Van Peursen, Secretary of the National Commission.
The hallmarks of the journey were those of enterprise and achievement, a typical example being the Unesco Information and Documentation Centre, at 264. Keizersgracht. in Amsterdam, which the Director-General opened on November 7. Another example of Unesco's policy of communication with the general public and students in all Member States, the Centre is governed by a Council, under the chairmanship of Dr. Ph. J. idenburg. Its creation owes much to the work of two Dutch student members of the Council. MM. E. Alderse Baer and Jean Morreau.
Two large rooms had been set apart in the Amsterdam International Institute building to house the display of Unesco's documents and publications. Workers at the centre gave their services voluntarily, and a number of Amsterdam university students offered their help.
An Information and Documentation Centre of the kind now available to the Dutch public at Amsterdam represents a bridge across which Unesco makes contact with the general pubic, particularly young people-the men and women of tomorrow.
Here, students, workers and members of the liberal professions, can find the type of information which will bring home to them the problems which will be solved if the world is to emerge from its present state of international instability. Here, they can see how closely the work of Unesco is associated with their own aspirations.
It is hoped that the results achieved by this experiment in the Netherlands will serve as a mode for the setting up of centres by National Commissions in Unesco's other Member States.
When each Member State has its Unesco Centre working as a Unesco publicisiog unit and clearing house for examining educational, scientific and cultural questions, the solution of one of the fundamental problems met by the organization since its constitution will be in sight.