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will, in general, like each other better, and if they can understand and share the cultures of other peoples they will be the less ready to wreck the world's common heritage by war. It was admitted that it is a faith that has yet to be tested, but the representatives of the nations gathered in Paris had no doubts that, if this faith fails, there is, little for the common people of the world to hold on to in international relations. So the freeing of lines of communication between peoples necessarily becomes one of UNESCO's most urgent tasks. The most direct form of communication between peoples is, of course, through travel, and it was to this that the Conference first gave its attention. On the negative side, UNESCO will begin a world-wide survey of existing barriers to travel —visas, travel permits, exchange regulations, and the like. It hopes to be able to suggest means of making it easier to cross national boundaries. This applies particularly to such important groups as scholars, teachers, scientists, and artists whose work is international in character, but it is of great significance also to the ordinary men and women of the world. More particularly, UNESCO will stimulate and encourage, and in some cases itself organize, international conferences in the fields of education, science, and culture. A similar investigation is being made into the obstacles that prevent the free flow of cultural materials between countries. Postagerates on books and periodicals, cable and wireless rates, quotas on films, tariffs and exchange restrictions, Customs formalities, censorship, copyright laws—all, it was pointed out by speakers, have been devised to protect some national or sectional 1 interest, and no survey has ever been made of their infinitely more important effects upon international understanding. The citizens of one country, it was maintained, cannot begin to understand another country if they cannot even get access to its books and magazines. Seen from this global point of view, UNESCO believes the complicated system of barriers to the free flow of ideas may look very different even to the men who have set them up. However that may be, it cannot begin to reduce the barriers until it knows exactly what they are throughout the world. Hence the survey as a first step. UNESCO will co-operate in this work with the United Nations, which has itself direct interests in some parts of the field. The removal of barriers, it was held, is not enough, and UNESCO plans to establish certain services that will improve the cultural contacts between nations. It will, for instance, establish a central international inter-library loan system by which readers in any part of the world may, given the co-operation of the world's librarians, have access, either in original or copy, to the printed materials contained in any library in any country. It will assist libraries and schools to obtain books, periodicals, works of art, and museum objects from