"TODAY, science has brought all the different quarters of the globe so close together that it is impossible to isolate them one from another," Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote the night before he died, in an address which was to be his last message. "Today we are faced with the pre-eminent fact that, if civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships---the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together and work together in the same world, at peace."

The cultural relations of a people are its efforts toward mutual acquaintance and the mutual understanding that such acquaintance brings. The world's bitter experience of war in our time has made it clear that peace is no chance growth but must be planned. It seems to be a conviction generally accepted by the Governments which have furthered long-term programs, that among the measures used to build up peace none has proved more successful---that for the same investment of mind and treasure none has proved nearly so successful---as the cultural relations program, in spite of the undeniable fact that it has been used on occasion to further political and military interests as well as the interests of peace. Nevertheless, the degree in which these programs of cultural relations have contributed to solidarity among peoples is a matter of record. The part of that historic record transcribed in this volume includes instances from many Governments and languages. It is a significant fact that every country which has carried on a government program of cultural relations with other countries over a period of years sets a high value on such relationships. It is significant too that these programs are not slackened but intensified in periods of national crisis---whether a crisis of war, impending or actual, or a national crisis of any other nature responsive to foreign opinion.

It is relevant to note here that "cultural" as an adjective entered the English language fairly recently. It is first recorded by the Oxford Dictionary from the year 1875, when Whitney spoke of "a mere incident of social life and of cultural growth." "Culture," however, appeared as early as 1420 when the Palladium on Husbandry said-in a reference that might have been to international programs of mutual intellectual advantage but was in fact to the tilling of the soil ---"In places there thou wilt have the culture." By 1510, Sir Thomas More could speak figuratively of "the culture and profit of theyr myndes," but it was not until more than two and one-half centuries later, in 1867, that the word was employed to mean a particular form or type of intellectual development, and not till 1876, a year after "cultural" first appeared on the printed page, did Matthew Arnold use the noun: "Culture, the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world," in the sense corresponding to that of the adjective in our title.

Communication is the feature that definitely marks off man from other creatures; according to John Dewey: "It is the condition without which culture would not exist." Any program of cultural relations is a program of communication. A nation's culture is the sum total of its achievement; its own expression of its own personality; its way of thinking and acting. Its program of cultural relations abroad is its method of making these things known to foreigners. Such a program is in fact a self-portrait into which go all a people's creative ability and technical skill and which it wishes the rest of the world to recognize as a speaking likeness.

Cultural relations neither duplicate nor replace diplomatic and commercial relations among the countries of the world, though they may both strengthen and facilitate these other relationships by giving them a basis of friendly understanding. For the cultural relationship is essentially that of friendship from people to people, from the citizenry of one country to the citizenry of another, through such channels of mutual acquaintance as make friendship rewarding between individual and individual.

International programs of cultural relations take many forms and are carried on through both official and unofficial agencies. Numbers of them are directed toward some specific ideological or political objective. In this volume, only official government programs are considered; and of these, only long-range programs established by the Governments with the avowed purpose of making their own peoples' culture more widely known and better understood. Multilateral programs, carried on by a number of nations, as is the case of cultural organizations within the framework of the League of Nations, the United Nations, and the American Republics, do not come within the scope of a work dealing with cultural relationships set up with other countries by individual Governments. And in the latter instance, programs born of an immediate crisis, those of wartime information or of specific ideological propaganda, are considered here only in those aspects that overlap and coalesce with the cultural relations program as such.

Within the limits defined, the present study considers such cultural relations programs as developed by ten Governments. Several programs have been presented in considerable detail from their initiation to 1946, the year of writing: those of France, Germany, Great Britain, the United States.

For the rest---as in the case of the other American Republics, the Soviet Union, and Japan---the pattern is indicated and the present picture sketched. Although the authors have made an historical analysis of twenty-nine such government programs, they make no pretension of having examined all; if the list were complete, it would be a roll call of the world.

The bilateral cultural programs outlined in the following pages are of relatively recent origin, dating from the latter part of the nineteenth century. France and Germany had fairly extensive programs of cultural expansion abroad before the First World War. Between 1918 and 1939, such German and French activities were greatly increased and most of the other European Governments were following suit. Great Britain, however, did not recognize the need for "national interpretation" abroad until 1934, when she established the British Council for Relations with Other Countries. The United States Government initiated a program in 1938, with creation of the Interdepartmental Committee on Cooperation with the Other American Republics and of the Division of Cultural Relations in the Department of State.

While the several national programs differ greatly, there seem to be some points common to most.

1. From the beginning, most programs of cultural relations abroad have been initiated and controlled or supervised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Foreign Office, in which budgets a large proportion of the funds for carrying them is placed. In only a few cases were they initiated by the Ministry of Education, although this Ministry usually cooperates closely with the Foreign Office cultural projects abroad. By and large, the programs have become an important arm of foreign policy.

2. Each country has a strong belief in the importance of its own culture and a desire to have other countries know and appreciate this culture.

3. Each country believes that the improvement of cultural relations leads to better economic and political relations.

4. Each country centers much of its effort in the teaching of the national language (French, German, English) in foreign lands as a basis for better cultural and economic relationships.

5. Each country, having decided to develop a program of cultural relations with other nations, has given it strong moral and financial support. All have recognized the need for a permanent program of cultural relations abroad to carry out certain of their foreign policies.

The cultural activities carried on abroad by Governments commonly include the establishment and support of cultural centers or institutes and schools in foreign countries; the interchange of technical experts, professors, teachers, students, and leaders in various fields of intellectual and artistic expression; the exchange of books and other printed materials, lectures, concerts, and exhibitions. The newer media, motion picture and radio, are used increasingly. It is important to note that the cultural relations activities carried on through official channels are planned in the main to encourage and to supplement rather than to displace the international activities of private organizations, institutions, and individuals.

In outlining in the following chapters the historical development of the programs of ten Governments---France, Germany, Japan, the U.S.S.R., Great Britain, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and the United States---official documents such as reports, laws and decrees, and parliamentary debates, have been used almost entirely. Through official statements of the authorities responsible for the development of the program in each country, the policy, the kinds of activities undertaken, the scope of the activities, the budgets, and even the values placed on the program by the Governments concerned are made clear. In other words, it is the deliberate purpose of the authors, using the documentation available, to have each country explain the development of its own cultural relations program with other countries. It should be added that the conclusions reached in the final chapter are based not only on the studies of the programs of the ten countries included in this volume, but also on the authors' comparable studies of the programs of nineteen additional countries.

Organized for national interpretation abroad by the various Governments, these programs, in spite of common elements, reflect clearly differences in national character and in cultural background. This fact becomes apparent in examining and comparing the cultural programs carried on by the ten nations dealt with in the ensuing chapters.

Cultural activities of countries not given special attention in this book are too numerous even to be counted definitively. The Spanish Basques, for example, during World War II, circulated in several languages copies of the wartime autobiography of José Antonio de Aguirre, President of Euzkadi in exile. They established contacts with nationals of Basque ancestry---however remote in the Hispanic American Republics. At the University of Montevideo in Uruguay they created a Chair of Research on the Basque Language. The Government of the Netherlands while in exile and at war included in its radio programs---in Dutch, in English, in Spanish---cultural as well as war news. It showed in London motion pictures on Holland at war, on the Netherlands colonies, on the drainage of the Zuyder Zee. It engaged in the United States, in provision for the needs of peace, medical specialists to help rehabilitate Nazi-disorganized Dutch universities. The wartime Netherlands Ambassador at Mexico City gave lectures illustrated by slides on "Dutch Colonization as a Phenomenon of Civilization" and similar topics. A cultural institute (Instituto de Alta Cultura Brasil-Holanda) was inaugurated at Rio de Janeiro. Documentary films, with Indonesian tongues dubbed in, were prepared for the Pacific area, including long-range educational films on the Indonesian Islands for peacetime showing. A former Netherlands Minister of Over-Seas Territories was sent out in the spring of 1945 on a South American tour "to extend existing relations not only commercial but cultural"; and the Minister of Education journeyed over the United States to observe and report upon methods in education. Reciprocal relationships were established through many channels---music, folklore, translations, visiting lecturers---between the republic of Venezuela and the little islands of Aruba and Curaçao in the Netherlands West Indies.

Such reportage as the foregoing could be expanded and extended indefinitely. Taken together, it all amounts to irrefutable proof of how valuable, how necessary, the cultural approach of understanding between peoples has proved, even under the hard test of war. In wartime, as in time of peace, no other investment seems to give so large a proportional return as the investment in international solidarity through a cultural relationship.

Obviously, in two-hundred-odd pages it would be impossible to consider in detail, or even to outline, the cultural relations programs of all foreign countries. The authors of this volume, in presenting somewhat detailed historical studies of the longest established and most extensive programs and in giving the pattern of a number of others in Europe, the Americas, and Asia, have not made, nor desired to make, an objective evaluation, but, on the contrary have confined themselves to presentation of the several programs as envisaged by the Governments carrying them on, a presentation emphasized by direct citation of official statements and documents. In other words, the purpose here is to set forth the several programs with their underlying philosophies and with the estimates, according to their several exponents, of the results achieved through them. The wealth of relevant material in the various national archives is no less surprising than the fact that hitherto relatively little such information from official sources on cultural relations has ever been made available in any language to the general public. The Governments themselves, however, through official channels have always been profoundly interested in all details of the development of their own cultural programs and, from the beginning, have observed narrowly the programs of other Governments; a fact abundantly attested especially in the records of parliamentary debate. Much evidence in support of this statement is quoted in the following pages, in direct translations by the authors of the present volume, from parliamentary proceedings and other state documents.

A study of the following chapters will show, without editorializing on the part of the authors, that a program of national interpretation may be largely non-political in character in its international aspects, or may be directed toward ends demonstrably political. In their plans for world domination, for example, the totalitarian states have relied on cultural activities abroad to pave the way for a complete dictatorship over the lives of foreign peoples. On the other hand, the democracies have used cultural programs to develop the free and friendly relationships between their own and other peoples which lead to mutual understanding and respect and to that intangible, good will, which is a recognized asset in all relationships, individual and collective, whether political, economic, or cultural. But one invariable fact becomes increasingly evident to any observer of such developing programs in action, or to any student of historical documentation relating to them; namely, that they produce results. In view of their increasing use as an arm of foreign policy by Governments throughout the world, no nation can afford to ignore these programs or to underestimate their importance.

FRANCE first among modern nations recognized the advantages of a large-scale program of cultural relations with other countries. During the latter half of the nineteenth century the French Government, through the French Catholic teaching missionaries, carried on extensive religious, educational, and philanthropic works in the Near and in the Far East. Schools, hospitals, orphanages, dispensaries, and agricultural institutions were established in the eastern countries, especially in the Mediterranean Basin.(1)

The French authorities soon became aware of the political importance of the influence which France had begun to exercise in the Eastern Hemisphere as a result of this educational program and concluded that it was in the national interest to give it strong support. By the end of the century, France had spent more than 20,000,000 francs to "maintain her moral influence in the Near East and to extend it to the Far East" and considered the expenditures to be well justified. "What political operation or armed invasion was ever able, with less expenditure, to produce such important and lasting results?" asked M. Boucher, Deputy, reporting to the Chamber of Deputies on these activities in 1900.(2)

From the beginning, funds for the French program of cultural expansion abroad were placed in the budget of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and allocated through official channels. Each year a detailed study was made of the French educational and philanthropic activities subsidized by the French Government and carried on abroad under its direction. The results of this study were included in the annual report of the Commission on the Budget of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which was presented to the French Parliament for approval.

After the separation of Church and State, French authorities had to face the problem of replacing Catholic schools by lay schools in the eastern countries and their efforts met with strong opposition from Catholic groups both within and without France. France was in no financial condition to replace the already existing schools of the teaching missionaries with a comparable system of lay schools, nor could she afford to finance a new and important educational program in the West. The cost of providing new buildings and equipment, and of recruiting and paying a trained teaching personnel, was prohibitive. Fearful of impairing the powerful political influence of France in the East by the immediate suppression of the French religious congregations, the Government continued to give them large subsidies at the expense of the program of lay schools abroad.(3) In the budget for 1906 of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, under the chapter heading, Oeuvres françaises à l'étranger ("French works abroad"), 800,000 francs were given for educational and philanthropic works in the Near and in the Far East, most of which was allotted to the work of the religious congregations. The new schools established, however, were lay schools.(4)

In the meantime, interest in a program of intellectual expansion in the Western World began to develop. In 1901 M. Gervais, Deputy, advised the Chamber of Deputies that there was need for an educational program in Europe and in the Americas. It was clear that the French schools in the West should have a different character from those in the East. There were many French citizens living in Europe and in Latin America whose children should be given a real French education. Then too, in many of these countries English and German were increasingly taking the place of French as the languages of commerce and as "vehicles of thought" for England, America, and Germany, the countries competing with France. The Germans, especially, had recognized the importance of the German schools and had made of them a means of furthering Germanism abroad. They had also placed many German professors in higher institutions of learning in foreign countries. Because of this, French influence was decreasing and one of the important links in French economic relationships, especially with Latin America, was being weakened. "If commerce follows the flag, it follows for even stronger reasons the national language," concluded M. Gervais.(5)

M. Dubief, reporting on the budget for 1903, hoped for a broad program including new primary and higher schools where the French language could be taught and universities from which "French national thought and the genius of Republican France could radiate afar."(6)

It was not until 1906, however, that the French Government, increasingly occupied with foreign policies, became sufficiently aware of the "spontaneous and peaceful expansion" of French cultural activities in the West to give them some financial support. In that year 3,000 francs were placed in the budget for the Oeuvres françaises in Europe and in the Americas.(7)

Because of the very small funds allotted to it, the program in the West developed slowly. A few French schools in Belgium, Portugal, and Switzerland were subsidized. The report on the budget for 1910 noted the fact that in Latin America there were a number of cities which were centers of French culture. Certain French schools like the Collège Carnot in Montevideo, which had more than two hundred pupils, were growing. The Collège Victor Hugo of Buenos Aires, the French Schools of Santa Fé in Argentina, and the French Schools of Santiago in Chile, "were serving as best they could the cause of French influence and deserved the support of the Government."(8)

Two private societies also did much to further French cultural relations with other countries. The Alliance française, established to foster the teaching of the French language abroad, organized groups in many parts of the world, which, through their French courses, schools, lectures and gifts of books, carried on an active program. The Mission laïque was created to encourage the development of French lay schools abroad and carried on most of its work in the Near and in the Far East. Both these societies were sometimes given government subsidies.(9)

For years the French Government through the Ministry of Public Instruction had been giving strong support to two outstanding institutions of higher learning, the famous French Archaeological Institutes of Athens and of Rome. On the other hand, most of the funds for education in the budget of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had gone to aid French elementary schools, with increasing support for secondary schools (lycées and collèges). In 1910, one of the most important developments, in the French educational program abroad was begun when the Institute of Florence, established previously under private auspices, was given the support and the encouragement of the French Government as an institution of higher learning and of intellectual cooperation. According to the report on the budget for that year, funds for the Institute were to be added to the regular state subsidy of the University of Grenoble, which was to allocate them, appoint the personnel and direct the work with the approval of the French Ministry of Public Instruction.

Both the plans for the budget and the program of work, however, were also to be transmitted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for approval. The funds were to be used "for expenses connected with research on Italian culture, for French intellectual expansion and for close relationships with Italian intellectual life." The staff was made up of distinguished scholars, both French and Italian. The Institute made possible regular collaboration between the French and Italian universities.(10)

Soon after the establishment of the French Institute of Florence three of the universities of the south of France, Toulouse, Montpellier and Bordeaux, undertook to combine their university extension work and to develop in Madrid a French Institute of Higher Hispanic Studies which would do for Spain what the French Schools of Athens and of Rome had done for Greece and Italy. The Institute was open not only to philologists, historians, and archaeologists, but also to students interested in social and economic problems, as a place for "the study of Spain, past and present." There were also courses in the French language and literature for Spanish students, and in the Spanish language and literature for French students.(11)

In order to deal more effectively with the increasing programs, a new service was set up in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by the Ministerial Decree of August 13, 1910, which was called the Office des Ecoles et des Universités françaises à l'étranger. Its duties were to centralize all information concerning French educational and philanthropic work abroad, to help in the allocation of funds, to coordinate the work of the different ministries dealing with education abroad, and to improve the situation of teachers and professors delegated to work in other countries.(12)

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was not the only government agency interested in French schools abroad. The Ministry of Public Instruction, in order to carry out the wishes expressed during the general discussion of the budget in the Chamber of Deputies, on February 18th, 1911, grouped all its funds for university and scientific expansion abroad, under one chapter heading, L'expansion universitaire et scientifique de la France à l'étranger. In recognition of the importance of university relationships abroad and of the value of a "foreign policy" for the universities, the substantial sum of 172,000 francs was allotted for this work in 1910.(13)

In 1912 and 1913 the program of French educational activities abroad continued to expand. On the eve of the First World War, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs gave a summary of the work accomplished up to 1914. Government subsidies in the budget of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for schools in Europe had increased from 3,000 francs in 1906 to 138,000 francs in 1913. The Ministry had made it a policy to subsidize all schools existing abroad where there was an important French colony, so that the children of French parents might have a French education and preserve their French nationality.(14)

The program also assured the functioning of the institutes of higher learning which had been founded to give university youth abroad a knowledge of and a taste for the finest in French culture. The Department highly recommended subsidies for the French Institute of London which had just opened under private auspices with a program comparable to the programs of the Institutes of Florence and of Madrid. A French Institute in Serbia was under consideration. The new Institute in St. Petersburg was a center for scientific research, as well as an educational center, and was undertaking the publication of several outstanding research studies.(15)

In the Near East the primary emphasis had been on elementary education. By 1912 it was stated that there were about 70,000 children in the schools of the religious congregations and about 3,000 in lay schools within the territories of the old Ottoman Empire.(16) The report on the budget for 1913 advised the French Parliament that there was increasing need for secondary and even higher education in the countries of the Near East, and recommended aid for the Free Faculty of Medicine in Beirut and for the School of Law in Cairo. In the Far East, emphasis had been largely placed on what the report called "medical propaganda."

The coming of the First World War broke in upon these activities. The French Government, however, continued to provide financial support for French cultural activities abroad throughout the war, especially for those in Latin America.

AFTER the First World War, France, victorious but seriously weakened, faced the problem of rebuilding her international relations. Like all other nations, she had to find her place in the post-war world. Plans for expanding French influence abroad were discussed at length by the members of the French Parliament. In 1919, in the report of the Commission on the Budget of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the situation was analyzed in detail. For France, as for other nations, economic expansion was vitally important. Believing that, although blood had ceased to flow, the battle between nations was not over, and that "their influence, their respective cultures, their commerce, their language, their thought" remained as powerful weapons which in the future might determine the results of the conflict, France decided upon an intensive and effective program of cultural expansion abroad to spread her influence throughout Europe and the rest of the world.(17) "Of all our products for exportation," stated M. Raiberti, rapporteur for the Commission, "the finest product and that best fitted to make French genius known, admired and loved, is French thought." He added that intellectual and moral expansion was the best way to prepare for economic expansion.(18)

France was well aware of the efficient and powerful propaganda used by the Germans before and during the war and was watching their "feverish activity" as they renewed their efforts at the close of hostilities. German propaganda, which had already "entered the combat in the intellectual and economic field," had to be opposed by the most powerful French propaganda possible. The French leaders concluded that German propaganda could best be countered by French cultural expansion---by the radiation of French ideals abroad.(19)

With a clear recognition of its importance, a new and comprehensive organization of the French program of cultural expansion abroad was developed in 1920 which, with relatively few changes, continued until the outbreak of the Second World War. France called this a "propaganda" program, although it was largely a program of intellectual expansion abroad. "Propaganda is nothing but intellectual and moral influence and yet it is the most immediate and most valuable means for seconding the efforts made by this country to establish and develop her material prosperity," said M. Noblemaire, Deputy, in his report to the Chamber of Deputies in 1920.(20)

Plans for the new program included the coordination of government activities and private initiative. Propaganda for "national expansion" abroad was to be made by all the ministries and by all the organs of private initiative. Three ministries were to take a most active part in the work, however: the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Ministry of Public Instruction and the Fine Arts, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.(21)

The program of cultural relations abroad, however, was centered in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "If there is one principle that must be affirmed," reported M. Noblemaire, "it is that the burden and the responsibility for foreign relations must devolve upon the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and consequently no political, economic or intellectual action can be instituted or carried on abroad without the approval of the Ministry and without the control of our diplomatic agents." (22) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had two important services through which to work: the Service des Oeuvres françaises l'étranger, to carry on the program of cultural activities abroad, and the Service d'Information et de Presse.

In the reorganization of the Oeuvres, four large sections were set up: (1) the University and School Section; (2) the Artistic and Literary Section; (3) the Travel and Sports Section; and (4) the Section for other activities, such as the cinema, not included elsewhere.

The University and School Section of the Oeuvres françaises abroad had a most important and highly useful task, as the budget report for 1920 indicated:

Our letters, our arts, our intellectual civilization, our ideas, have always had a powerful attraction for foreign nations. Our universities and schools abroad are true centers of propaganda in favor of France. That is why the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its agents abroad must direct and control efforts, inspire and encourage at any price French intellectual penetration, in the conviction that it is one of the surest and most effective forms of our activity abroad, that it is, in so far as the different nations are concerned, one of our foreign policies that is richest in resources and least debatable. . .(23)

The three other sections of the Oeuvres françaises à l'étranger, i.e., the Artistic and Literary Section, the Travel and Sports Section, and a general section which dealt with the cinema and the radio, began an active program.

The Ministry of Public Instruction and the Fine Arts also continued to have in its yearly budget funds for "university and scientific expansion" abroad and provided professors and teachers for schools abroad. Closely affiliated with the Ministry was the Office National des Universités et des Ecoles françaises à l'étranger, which dealt with the educational relations with private institutions abroad, exchanges of professors and students, and scholarships.(24)

In the report on the budget for 1922, M. Noblemaire emphasized "the captivating interest, the vital importance of the question of cultural expansion abroad, which was still too much neglected." He continued, "It should not be forgotten, in fact, that an isolated nation can do nothing today by itself. Its security, its prosperity, if it is united within, come from the security which its political, economic, and intellectual powers win for it in the world struggle."(25)

In 1927 M. Paganon made a comprehensive study of the Oeuvres françaises abroad for the Commission on the Budget of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His report, which gave a clear statement of the status of the Oeuvres at that time, included the following observations:

Section Universitaire et des Ecoles

French culture has always exercised a powerful attraction and expansion far beyond the limits of our frontiers, of our colonies and of the countries which speak our language (Belgium, French Switzerland, French Canada, and Haiti). Not only has French remained the favorite language of the intellectual aristocracies of very diverse countries and races (Rumania, Latin America, the Near and the Far East), but it has recently awakened interest in much wider circles; first in the nations which were recently liberated and called to an independent life in 1919, especially in Central and Eastern Europe, and also in the Anglo-Saxon countries and in Japan, which have learned to know us better through the close comradeship established with them during the war. And yet we are far from having at our disposal powerful and numerous "colonies" like those which Germany and Italy have spread throughout the world . . . . Far from addressing themselves to compact groups of nationals, as do the cultural programs of Germany and Italy, our Oeuvres try, with complete disinterestedness, to reach the elite of foreign countries, eager for French culture, desirous of assimilating this treasure of new ideas, of liberal aspirations, and of refined traditions; desirous also of acquiring that elegance of expression and that flower of humanism which our literature, our art and our science represent.

Our activities can be conceived and carried on only by and through foreign collaboration. They are never imposed on others as menacing enclaves, but everywhere they serve the cause of intellectual cooperation and the rapprochement of the elite; they create a clientele for our art, our travel, our literature, and contribute, at the same time, to our knowledge of foreign countries about which we cannot have too precise and too extensive information.(26)

The report stated further that the French Institutes worked in close collaboration with the foreign universities and the local governments which gave them effective assistance in many ways. In Latin America and Japan, for example, large subsidies were sometimes given; in Czechoslovakia and Great Britain the training of teachers of French was entrusted to the Institutes.

The French lycées, which also made every effort to adapt to local needs, had had a parallel development. The lycée of Madrid, for example, after having established a very active section preparing for the Spanish baccalauréat, had organized a commercial section. The Franco-Brazilian lycée of São Paulo represented an interesting type of Franco-foreign collaboration, since the Brazilian director was assisted by a French technical adviser, an agrégé, who directed the French studies in the Brazilian national program.

The work was already showing results. An increase in the number of students, scholars, and technicians who came to take courses and improve their methods at French institutions of higher learning, and a larger place given to the French language in the foreign educational programs were noted.

According to the same report, the role of the Literary and Artistic Section of the Oeuvres was "to encourage and to coordinate private and individual initiative, the importance of which in artistic and literary matters is very great." The Section sent books and periodicals to university and public libraries, to French circles and to sections of the Alliance française. The publications were of all kinds, including reviews of general culture for French posts and libraries, special reviews for the universities, medical reviews in great numbers for medical faculties and hospitals, etc. For the libraries of French schools abroad only documentary works and the works of the classical authors were sent. As far as literary relations with other countries were concerned, the Section kept in touch with the literary and artistic circles abroad, encouraging, by subsidies, the activities of societies interested in France, and giving critics and journalists information about French art and literature. The Section also arranged for expositions, concerts, and theatrical performances upon the recommendation of French agents abroad.

The Section des Oeuvres diverses had the task of coordinating the efforts of private associations abroad such as the Alliance française, the Comité des Amitiés catholiques, the Comité protestant, the Mission laïque, the Alliance israélite, the Association France-Grande-Bretagne, and the Comité France-Amérique. It contributed to the support of the French foyers established abroad and to French circles, associations, philanthropic societies, hospitals, dispensaries and nurseries. It furthered the participation of French teams in international sporting events. Through sending books, slides, and films, and through organizing lectures, the Section made the travel resources of France known abroad. It also provided films and lantern slides giving a complete and accurate picture of contemporary French life for the use of schools and lecturers abroad.

Finally, the same report contained a discussion of the work of the Service d'Information et de Presse. This service, established in 1920, had three divisions in 1927: (1) Information for French and foreign journalists (in Paris); (2) A Section for the Study of the Foreign Press; (3) Informations françaises à l'étranger, which included documentation for French representatives abroad for use of the local press. The third division, established in 1922, prepared exact information to be given to the foreign press at the request of the French diplomatic and consular services. Materials were provided, for example, on the economic and financial situation of France according to the most recent statistics, the rise of French industries, the results of the efforts to restore the devastated regions, etc. The information services were, in large measure, kept separate from the services for the cultural relations program and funds for them were placed in a different chapter of the budget.

Between 1920 and 1930 grants for French cultural activities abroad increased greatly. For 1921 the credit given was 19,870,000 francs,(27) while in 1930 the credit proposed was 58,745,390 francs.(28)

In the early post-war program of cultural expansion abroad increasing emphasis was laid on activities in Europe and in North and South America. For 1932, the Commission on the Budget requested increase in funds for the Americas, with the following recommendations:

Oeuvres françaises en Amérique(a)

In answer to the desire expressed by Parliament during the last discussion on the budget, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has studied various means of developing our activities in America; it proposes for this chapter an increase of 1,120,000 francs. This important increase should make it possible to improve relations with the great American universities, and also to create new facilities for the teaching of our language, especially in Latin America, where there is so much interest in the French language and where our compatriots form active and busy colonies.

Article 1---Section universitaire et des écoles---Increase of 1,000,000 francs.

I. A new credit of 250,000 francs for the methodical organization of French courses through our Alliances françaises on the model adopted by the Alliance française of Buenos Aires which has more than 3,000 regular students and delivers hundreds of diplomas. Each year courses will be established in two new cities; this year in Rio de Janeiro and in Santiago de Chile.

II. A credit of 100,000 francs for the support of a higher institute for the study of American culture in Mexico . . . . This institution should give a new impetus to the study, in France, of the ancient American civilizations.

III. A new credit of 100,000 francs for the lycée of Montevideo, which has 1,000 pupils, making possible the organization of its advanced classes, and the increase of its teaching staff. The lycée, up to this time, has received a subsidy of only 100,000 francs. It must increase the size of its buildings, which have become too small because of this development.

IV. Credit of 100,000 francs for the Franco-Brazilian lycée of São Paulo of Brazil, making it possible to establish two new teaching positions for French professors.(29)

The rest of the funds provided for the Oeuvres françaises en Amérique for 1932 were to be given for activities in North America. The proposed budget for the United States included the following items:

V. A credit of 100,000 francs for sending school books, teaching materials and documentary films to French professors delegated for service in the universities and colleges in the United States. There are nearly 100 of these professors.

VI. A credit of 100,000 fr. for Franco-American University exchanges and the sending of professors to universities in the United States.

VII. A subsidy of 100,000 fr. for the Maison française of Columbia University, New York: this house will have a library and a center of information about France, like those already established in other European countries.

VIII. A subsidy of 50,000 fr. for the French center of the University of Chicago. The establishment of the same kind of a center . . . in the Middle West where the study of our language and culture has had such a great development.

IX. A subsidy of 50,000 fr. to send prize books to the Franco-American schools in the East of the United States. . .

X. A subsidy of 50,000 fr. for the Collège des Maristes of San Francisco which, at the request of the French colony established in this city, has developed secondary classes to meet the needs of our compatriots . . . . (30)

The importance of welcoming students from the United States and of giving them opportunities to become acquainted with French life and with French families was emphasized. Some 20,000 fr. were given to facilitate this.

The need for a more extensive and effective propaganda service abroad grew as tensions continued to increase in Europe. Most of the report of the Commission on the Budget for 1933 was devoted to a study of the French program of cultural relations abroad. Reflecting the changing conditions and attitudes of the later post-war years in Europe, when hopes for peace were rapidly diminishing and when many French leaders recognized the terrible dangers inherent in the European situation, the French authorities turned again to a program of intellectual and cultural expansion abroad as one of the best means for combating disaster.

M. Dariac, reporting for the Commission in 1933, began the report with the following words:

War, as the experience of the last years proves, does not end with the treaties of peace. Long afterward it continues its ravages, weakens nations, unbalances budgets, corrupts morals, overthrows constitutions, causes the international current of exchange to stagnate, and paralyzes labor. In the course of the fifteen years which have just passed, the world has undergone greater changes than have been recorded in more than one hundred years. The center of gravity of the country has been displaced.(31)

He went on to describe in some detail the propaganda services of other great European Powers and asked for a new and constructive plan for French propaganda abroad. Stating that there never was a time when it was more necessary to make France known abroad, he concluded that many of the misunderstandings that had recently arisen, like those with the United States, were due to the fact that foreign peoples were not sufficiently informed about France. M. Dariac quoted Napoleon's words at St. Helena, "I have been forced to conquer Europe by the sword; he who comes after me will conquer it by the spirit. For the spirit is always more powerful than the sword." Dariac added that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had this spirit in trust, and it must be given means to radiate abroad.(32)

The extensive program planned at that time by the Commission was never realized, and in the next few years the situation for the Oeuvres became even more difficult because of the financial crisis through which France was passing. When the plans for the 1937 budget were set up, the following groupings of expenditures were suggested for the Oeuvres françaises . l'étranger:

Within these groups, returning to geographical order, the following table shows how the funds were allocated:

The increased amounts asked for the Oeuvres françaises abroad for 1937 were indispensable, said M. Archimbaud:

For many months our educational works abroad have been in a critical situation. In all countries where they have been carried on, they have had to answer the redoubled efforts of a German and Italian propaganda which has had large funds available, which has neglected no means of forcing itself upon the public and which has made every effort to win the younger generation to its cause. We need only say that the last Italian budget contained for cultural expansion a sum of nearly 70,000,000 francs.(35)

Germany also was using "great liberality" in giving German scientific works to foreign libraries, in founding new institutes, new reviews, new newspapers abroad. In the Balkans and in the northern countries she was working to spread German culture by sending German professors to foreign universities.

Everywhere, this intellectual propaganda appears not only in competition, but in open battle with our own. Already, in several countries whose students attended regularly our institutes and our schools, we have noted in the youth a disturbing tendency to turn to another culture and another political ideal. It cannot be denied that we are losing ground rapidly in Belgium, Rumania, Yugoslavia, Turkey, and even Czechoslovakia. . .(36)

France had, in 1936, a strong network of educational institutions abroad; thirty French Institutes, twenty lycées, twenty French schools, several hundred professors on leave abroad, at the service of the foreign Governments, and French courses set up in most of the large cities.

In supporting a much wider program for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs instead of the program of retrenchment asked by the Government, M. Archimbaud said that it was a dangerous time to reduce the work of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The true mission of the Ministry, which has been forgotten, is not an administrative one. In the present situation in Europe it is a mission of National Defense. It is through the shortage of personnel that the unsatisfactory character of certain services can be explained, the gaps, the delayed information, and primarily the inferiority of the program of expansion of French culture in other countries. As a result there is grave danger to our foreign policies, especially since Germany and Italy have been making unprecedented efforts to extend their influence abroad.

The reports of our agents, the impressions brought back by Frenchmen, especially Members of Parlement traveling beyond our frontiers, even the confidences of our best foreign friends, leave no doubt of the urgency and of the importance of the work which must be undertaken to defend both French interests and the cause of peace.

At a time when it is necessary for us to make the greatest sacrifices for the Army, the Navy, and military aviation, to prepare for a war which may be imposed upon us, there should be no penury in giving to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the outpost of National Defense, the necessary means to safeguard peace.(37)

 

The scope of the French cultural activities abroad in 1937 was clearly indicated in a comprehensive statement made by the Commission on the Budget in its report for 1938.(38)

Of all their educational activities abroad the French were most proud of their French Institutes, "those important institutions of higher learning which have become true organs of collaboration, of exchange, of understanding between France and other countries." By 1937 a new Institute had been established at Stockholm with great success, and another at Kaunas. A center of higher studies had been set up at Krakow.

The French Institute of London was extending its activity to a large number of cities in the United Kingdom, and the new lycée had nearly five hundred pupils. The French Institute of Higher Studies, at Athens, had more than a thousand pupils. The Institutes of Praha and Warsaw, whose work was in the scientific and technical fields where "French effort was often less well known and insufficiently appreciated," had had a remarkable development during the year. The Institute at Bucharest, recently established in a large and comfortable building, was moving in the same direction. The French Institutes of Sofia and Belgrade also had new quarters.

The foreign universities continued to call upon distinguished French professors; a professorship of French civilization was established at Jerusalem; the universities of Sao Paulo, of Porto Alegre, and of Bahia again increased the number of their French professors. The great North American universities were also asking for more French scholars on their faculties.

The university missions and the French professors abroad were very active in the universities. New Governments, especially the Lithuanian Government, had requested French professors to develop a program for teaching the language in their lycées. In Belgrade, a French section was organized in one of the principal lycées in the city. Russia also was making plans to call upon a group of French university professors to take charge of the training of teachers of French in the U.S.S.R.

The lycées everywhere had more pupils than they could take care of. At Tallinn, owing to the collaboration of the Esthonian Government, the lycée had a new building which could house five hundred pupils. In Riga and in Warsaw, efforts were being made to get larger quarters for the increasing numbers of pupils. The secondary courses at Salonika were reorganized. The French gymnasium at Praha had set up a branch and a preparatory school at Brno. "The development of scientific and technical education and the organization of new laboratories is continuing in the lycées of the French Mission laïque of Egypt and Syria," added M. Archimbaud, who had prepared the report. "The French lycée of New York, with generous American help, is going to have larger buildings. In Latin America the flourishing lycée of Montevideo is inaugurating its new buildings in the spring. The young and flourishing collèges of Bogotá, Santiago, Buenos Aires, and São Paulo are requesting new French personnel in organizing the preparation for the baccalauréat."(39)

The increased funds given in 1937 allowed for more grants to bring foreign students to the French universities and Institutes. These grants were supplemented by scholarships to allow future teachers of French to take vacation courses at French universities. More than four hundred of these grants were given.

The report also stated that an effort was being made to establish model French libraries in provincial cities, especially in central and eastern Europe and in Latin American countries. French professors were located in these smaller centers. It seemed advisable not to limit French intellectual expansion to the large cities but to extend it as well to those of less importance.

The Section on French Books and French Art Abroad had also made much progress. Each year the Section had a double task, which was described as follows:

On one hand, to place at the disposal of the students of the great foreign universities the works and the discoveries of the French scientists, to furnish to public libraries and to French and Franco-foreign circles popular scientific works and to make them available to the public so that they may follow in our literary production the reflection of our intellectual, social, and political interests; on the other to encourage the study of the French language by making available to the youth of foreign countries attractive books which will familiarize them with the masterpieces of our classical and modern literature.(40)

The Section fulfilled the first part of its task by giving library books, prize books (for schools), free subscriptions to scientific and literary reviews, memberships in certain associations interested in making French books known abroad, and by sending abroad as lecturers distinguished authorities on the most varied subjects.

On the other hand this Section made every effort to make known abroad the artistic riches of the past as well as the present creative genius of France. To carry out this program the Section delegated its powers to the Association française d'action artistique and put at its disposal the credits which it had for this purpose.

The activity of the Association was shown in the organization abroad, under the most careful control of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, of exhibitions of painting or sculpture, of musical or theatrical tours, and of participation in international demonstrations.

The Section for Other Activities also had an important increase in its work during 1937. One of the essential tasks of the Section was to increase the distribution of French films abroad. Through continued effort the French films were beginning to have some advantage over other films abroad, especially in Sweden where they had supplemented German films and in the United States where seventeen films were distributed in 1937.

The report continued:

Radio. This year a new survey was made through the efforts of this Section in all countries. In each of these countries technicians provided very precise and objective information which made it possible for the radio transmission services of the Ministry of Posts, Telegraph, and Telephones to make up an excellently documented dossier on the zones of influence of the different French Posts.

The Section encourages the organization of French programs at the local Posts abroad. In this way it helped the French Institute at Lisbon to establish a French "hour" each week at the radio station in this city. It also furnished French music disks for some of the foreign stations. . .

Travel. In so far as travel is concerned the Section continued to work in close collaboration with the services of the Commissariat général; sending travel material abroad, making efforts to counteract certain propaganda directed against travel in France. In addition this year the Exposition gave an opportunity for the organization of trips to Paris for a large number of tourists.(41)

The increase in the credits given in the budget made it possible to give larger subsidies to such associations as the Alliance française, the Mission laïque, and the Franco-foreign associations.

At the close of the study of the Oeuvres françaises abroad in 1937 M. Archimbaud made the following statement: "The magnitude of the effort undertaken can be seen clearly, but this effort must not diminish, whatever the financial difficulties of the moment may be. We must understand that one of the essential parts of the destiny of France is played in the intellectual realm. It would be folly to compromise, in this realm, our intellectual expansion and our future."(42)

In 1937 the grant for French cultural activities abroad was 57,599,100 francs. For 1938 a grant of 70,358,200 was proposed.

The French program of "intellectual and moral expansion" abroad was continued throughout the difficult period preceding the invasion of Poland. Even after the war had begun, in December, 1939, both the Chamber and the Senate voted against a reduction of 5,000,000 francs recommended because of the decrease in some of the cultural activities and the disappearance of others.(43)

AFTER the German invasion of France, the reorganized French state under the Vichy Government continued to place in its budget large amounts for cultural expansion abroad. According to the Journal Officiel de l’État français of January 1, 1942, the sum of 88,075,000 francs was allocated for the Oeuvres françaises à l'étranger.(44) In 1944 of a total budget of 375,305,000 francs for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 80,813,000 francs---approximately 21 per cent of the total---were destined for the Oeuvres françaises.(45) It was clear that the Vichy Government wished to keep its cultural contact with the outside world.

In the meantime a number of French cultural activities were initiated by French men and women who, fleeing from occupied Europe, had taken refuge in neutral and allied countries. In New York, for example, French refugee scholars had much to do with the founding of the Ecole Libre des Hautes Etudes in 1940-41. The Ecole Libre, with a staff of distinguished French and Belgian scholars, has been carrying on an important program of cultural relations. In several of the Latin American countries French Institutes or cultural associations were established. French professors found positions in universities in a number of foreign countries.

Many French nationals who spent the war years in Great Britain took an active part in the program of cultural cooperation which the British, through the British Council and the Board of Education, carried on with the hundreds of foreigners living within the United Kingdom. The French Institute in London, which before the war had been subsidized by the French Government, was able to continue many of its activities through a grant from the British Council, and served as a center for French cultural activity in Great Britain.

Soon after the French Committee of National Liberation was formed in Algiers, it began to carry on a small program of cultural relations with other countries. Its cultural contacts abroad began to widen as sympathy for and understanding of its program developed. The Commission of Education of the French Committee of National Liberation represented the French Government at the Conference of Allied Ministers of Education in London which, for the duration of the war, worked on plans for the rehabilitation of Europe as well as for the establishment of an international educational and cultural organization.

AFTER the liberation of France the French Provisional Government soon took steps toward developing a powerful cultural relations program through which to regain French cultural prestige abroad. In the budget of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for 1945, published in the Journal Officiel of April 3, 1945, the important sum of 460,836,000 francs was allocated to the Oeuvres françaises à l'étranger. This was approximately 36 per cent of the total budget of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which amounted to 1,277,581,000 francs for the same year.(46)

The determination of the French Government to strengthen and to increase the place of the French language and culture in the world was made clear in the report on the budget for that year which discussed the use of these increased funds. A Direction des Relations culturelles with greatly increased budget and personnel had been organized to replace the former Oeuvres françaises à l'étranger. According to the report, this was in line with the powerful efforts which the Allies, England, the Soviet Union, and the United States, were already making to "assure the development of their educational, intellectual, literary, artistic, scientific and technical relations in all parts of the globe."(47)

France must give the fullest response to the strong desire of other nations for a knowledge of her civilization. While the war continued, French culture was the only field in which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs could carry on a really important policy. It was essential, therefore, stated the report, to direct this effort toward the development of the institutions which taught the French language and civilization throughout the world; toward the creation of a vast machinery for an exchange of men with all kinds of techniques and skills between France and the United Nations, and toward a policy for sending books throughout the entire world.

One question which was especially brought to the attention of the Assembly was the appointment of cultural advisers to posts in the embassies and legations in many parts of the world. These advisers did not exist before the war, but the French National Committee in London had taken the initiative of appointing several of them and they had served French thought and culture worthily abroad. Cultural advisers or attachés should represent the best of French culture, the report continued. Instead of setting up a regular category of government officials for these new functions, French professors and intellectuals on leave for a certain period should be appointed.

In accordance with the higher cultural policy envisaged by the Ministry, it was true French thought which must be worthily represented in all countries, large and small. "The France which is beloved in the world and which the modern world needs is the France of the French Revolution and the rights of men," the report concluded, and added that the entire spirit of Vichy, wherever it was able to influence the Oeuvres françaises in any country, must be totally eradicated.(48)

The budget for 1945 included more than 110 million francs to build or purchase new buildings or to restore those which had been damaged or destroyed during the hostilities.

The rest of the funds were requested for various kinds of cultural activities abroad. For example, for cultural missions 10,000,000 francs were placed in the budget. The report stated that one of the most effective forms of French cultural propaganda was the sending abroad of qualified French citizens whose task it was to make contact with foreign cultural and scientific circles, and to make French thought known through the organization of congresses, and through lectures. It was also important to study both the fields in which French cultural influence might be developed in other countries and ways of increasing this influence.

Another 10,000 francs was listed for fellowships for advanced studies in London, Moscow, Ottawa, and New York. The organization of four French schools of higher studies at Moscow, London, Ottawa, and Washington, which would help to develop strong currents of cultural interchange between France and her allies, was proposed. The program envisaged the sending of some twenty young Frenchmen who had just completed their literary, scientific, and technical training for a year's study in England, Canada, the United States, or the U.S.S.R. Owing to their very broad cultural background, they would be missionaries of French thought. A long stay abroad would also make it possible for them to bring back the great benefit of their observations. There were fields in which France had much to learn of civilizations which had developed more rapidly than the French in the use of scientific and industrial techniques for the benefit of social progress.

The same report on the budget (1945), among other items, proposed 20 million francs for financing the organization of or attendance at international and scientific conferences; 22 million francs to assist Franco-foreign associations such as France-Grande-Bretagne-Etats-Unis, France-Amérique, France-U.R.S.S.; 15 million francs for furthering the sale and distribution of French books and periodicals abroad; and 16 million francs to bring foreign students, usually at the graduate level, to France for study in French universities and higher technical schools and for training in hospitals, in laboratories, and in industry.

In line with the above proposals, the French Provisional Government began to re-establish cultural contacts abroad and to further new projects. In spite of the confused political and economic situation within France and in spite of world-wide transportation difficulties, cultural missions were sent abroad, and a wide exchange of books and periodicals was instituted. A number of Institutes were established and the French Institute in London returned to French control. Not only was the exchange of students begun, but many French professors and specialists, particularly in the fields of science, technology, and education, were sent abroad to renew their contacts with recent developments in their special fields. New cultural centers like the Services du Conseiller Culturel in New York were created. The number of cultural officers attached to the French Missions abroad increased rapidly.

In the debate on the budget of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Chambre des Députés, March 13, 1946, the Chambre voted favorably on a budget of 523,950,000 francs for the Oeuvres françaises abroad for 1946.(49) While, in the general budget reductions asked at that time by the French Constitutional Assembly, the amounts for French cultural activities had been reduced from those previously proposed for the year, the reporter for the Commission on the Budget made it clear that the Commission was unwilling to make "foolish economies" in this work when the prestige of France and the defense of French interests were at stake, and that additional sums might be given during the year if the requests for them seemed justified. On April 6, the Chambre des Députés voted favorably on a budget for the Oeuvres françaises l'étranger for 1946 which had been increased to 631,000,000 francs.

France, like other countries which created Ministries of Information during the Second World War, in planning a post-war program became concerned with the future of the French information services abroad. The French Ministry of Information which was established immediately after the liberation had as one of its most important functions that of informing the peoples of other countries about France. During the discussion of its budget by the Deputies in April of 1946, the question was raised as to the continuance of the Ministry of Information when comparable government departments had been discontinued by the United States and Great Britain. It was stated that certain activities carried on by this Ministry abroad were clearly overlapping with the cultural services of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.(50) While an interministerial commission which had been constituted to examine its future was studying the question, the Ministry of Information was dissolved and, by the Decree of July 1, 1946, the Information Services were transferred to the Secretary of State of the Présidence du Conseil, until their final status could be determined.(51)

The Journal Officiel of June 1, 1946, gave as the appropriation for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the year 1946, 3,983,479,000 francs, of which 1,209,750,000 francs were allocated to the Oeuvres françaises à l'étranger.(52)

During the latter half of 1946, further efforts to adjust the cultural and informational programs to the changing political and economic conditions both within and without France were made. By a decree of September 16, the Director General of Cultural affairs, M. Louis Joxe, was given the responsibility of reorganizing, with the assistance of experts and of the commissions concerned, the French cultural and informational programs abroad.