1 4 D O C U M E N T 9 A P R I L 1 9 2 3
would have been called for, in order to recoup in a manner the loss of time occa-
sioned by this absence. It was with this friendly letter that you took leave of us at
your departure for the Far East.
Our amity accompanied you during your long voyage. We awaited with impa-
tience your return and the moment that you would come and take your place on the
Committee.
Then, abruptly, on 21 March, from Zurich, when we did not even know that you
had arrived, you sent us your resignation, without any prior notice.
Your letter not only announces your withdrawal from the Committee on Intel-
lectual Cooperation. It is an irrevocable condemnation of the League of Nations,
which, you say, does not possess either the necessary force nor good will to accom-
plish its mission and which you refuse to have anything to do with, in your capacity
as a convinced pacifist.
This judgment, dear Professor Einstein, you made without having followed the
work of your Committee, without having attended a single one of its meetings, hav-
ing come back from a voyage during which it would perhaps not have been easy to
follow European affairs.
Before that letter could reach Geneva, it was reprinted in the Zurich newspapers,
published, and thus communicated to the whole world.
This sudden and resounding about-face will have most assuredly painfully
shocked those who, like us, are aiming at a modest, realizable, humane ideal, who
are arduously, obstinately pursuing the work of international peace which the
League of Nations symbolizes for them. They had hoped that your collaboration
would make help guide the Committee on Intellectual Cooperation’s work in the
most useful direction. Knowing that the mission of the League of Nations would
not have been executed without the support of all men of good will, they had been
particularly pleased about securing the collaboration of an authority as eminent as
you. Their hope is disappointed today. But their faith in this grand task had been
hardened enough by the daily struggle to take this shock without being shattered.
They will, dear Professor Einstein, therefore continue the effort started in sincere
hope; and I dare state the conviction that the road which distances you from them
today will one day lead you back toward them.
Sincere and cordial regards,
Pierre Comert.