The Word “International"

Abstract

IT has unfortunately become a too common habit to prefix the word ‘international’ to the title of institutions which have no claim to be so described. A recent instance is the announcement of an ‘International’ Congress of Mediterranean Prehistory and Protohistory, to be held in Florence in the spring of 1950. Its title is evidently modelled on that of the International Congress of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences, a fully organised international society which met in London in 1934, and at Oslo in 1938, and is now arranging its third meeting, also for 1950. But the Italian ‘Promoting Committee’ consists only of seven Italian professors, and though it is patronized by the Italian Ministry of Education and the Foreign Office, it is sponsored only by Italian institutes—at Rome, Florence and Bordighera. The circular announces that other Italian and foreign institutions will be named later on. But this is not good enough. It is time that some protest was made against the misuse of so significant a word as ‘international’ by bodies which have no claim to it.