Congresses

"Resolved that in view of the dignity and necessary expenditure of effort, time and money to secure the high plane attained by the Ninth Quinquennial Congress, that it be the feeling of this meeting that the League meet in Congress Session not more frequently than once in five years."

In pursuance of this resolution, initially the League held its Congresses every five years. Subsequently, in the statutes as amended in 1966, it is changed to every three years. And though initially it is mentioned that the Congress was for "Scientific as well as business purposes" and League meetings every year for "business purposes only," this distinction has vanished and the annual meetings have been equally major Congresses of the League even though organised by the inviting countries. The only difference is in the matter of election which is held every three years.

The list of Congresses appears separately and shows the activity of the League. There was a long break in this activity due to the Second World War. The first post-war meeting was held at London on June 26, 1947 along with the British Homeopathic Congress. This was not an official meeting of the League but was held as such with participants from a number of countries and they presented at length the state of Homeopathy in their countries in the postwar years.

Names of the Organisation: Initially the name was International Homeopathic League (abb: I. H. L.). I have also seen the letters L. H. I. for Liga Homeopathica Internationalis. Later, I find that this has been changed to Ligue Medicale Homeopathique Internationale and later as Liga Medicorum Homeopathica Internationalis and the abbreviations as L.M.H.I. The League also changed its insignia at least once.

Headquarters: The question of a permanent headquarters for the League was considered in 1927. It was felt that the "Head Centre" should be in London. In later amendments to the Constitution, "Geneva has been chosen as the Registered Office." There has been an attempt all along to have a Headquarters building and a Central International Library.

A temporary Central Office was established in 1973 under the name of "Gen. Management, Liga M. H. I., P.O. Box 66, Bloemandaal, Holland."

Recently a "Foundation Hahnemann" has been established in Paris. No permanent L.M.H.I. Secretary is possible there according to Statutes but whether it becomes the permanent Headquarters of the League or only a central address remains to be seen.

Subscription: It has not been possible to ascertain the fee for membership in the initial period of the League. It appears that the National Organisations contributed to the League funds. There is, however, mention of someone having paid a fee of 10 shillings (English money) in 1927. Later, (probably from 1957), the annual subscription was 15 Swiss Francs. In 1966, this was reduced to 5 Swiss Francs so as to encourage a larger membership and also because it was decided to have a separate subscription for the proposed League Journal.

In 1974, this has been raised to U.S. $5/-.

In the earlier period, the financial year started from June.

Later this has been changed to the calendar year.

World Directory of Homeopaths: An International Homeopathic Directory containing the names of Homeopaths from all over the world appeared in the Fifties. It was brought out by the then Treasurer, Dr. Rudolf Flury. I have not been able to trace any previous list, but there is a reference made to the "New International Homeopathic Directory" at the Congress of 1927. Subsequently, another more complete edition appeared in 1973 as "The World Directory of the Homeopathic Physicians." This compilation was done by the present Treasurer, Dr. M. Tiedemann.

It has been decided that an edition containing corrections and additions would appear every three years, whereas a complete new edition would be published every nine years.

Membership Card: A special Card of Membership was proposed at the 1927 Congress. I am not aware if it was actually made, but a Membership Card as also a Certificate in Latin language was made in 1973.

Journal: This must have been in the mind of the League Council members for a long time but the earliest reference I find is a "Proposal for an International Homeopathic Review" at the meeting in 1951. In 1962, the President, Dr. Gagliardi, reported, "No progress owing to lack of funds." At the same meeting the possibility for such a journal was again discussed and a Committee was formed to explore the matter further. In subsequent Congresses, this matter continued to be considered as an important item of the agenda.

Finally in 1969, the League started to publish its journal under the name of Acta Homeopathica. In addition to the Chief Editor, it had a panel of Advisory Editors drawn from all over the world. In the first issue, the President of the League, Dr. Lamasson, wrote:

"The creation of this necessary connection between the Homeopathic physicians all over the world has been the greatest desire of the former advisory assembly of the Liga Homeopathica Internationalis since the foundation of this Liga. Twice the world wars had prevented its formation of this.

"We believe that the Homeopathic physicians all over the world should be informed about the efforts which are made in other countries. They have to get to know each other and learn from all the progress which has been achieved by others at different places.

"The Acta Homeopathica, which will be regularly published, six times a year, will inform everybody about the news in the world. A few years ago we had knowledge of Homeopathic physicians and Homeopathic organisations in 16 countries only, nowadays however, we are publishing the papers from 30 different nationalities."

Although he announced that, "the Acta Homeopathica is born and may it live long," in 1970, the Treasurer's report showed much loss sustained by the League in its publication and the number of subscribers was much below expectation. I repeated my earlier offer of printing the English section in India at a very much cheaper price and finance it out of the subscriptions collected within the country, provided all the articles were translated and made available to me in English. However, this was not found feasible and the publication of Acta had to be reluctantly discontinued in 1971 after only three years. It was then decided to have an annual issue of the Acta which mostly contained articles from the International Congress of that year. However, from 1973, the Congresses started to publish all the articles in the form of Transactions. Therefore, it was decided in 1975 to discontinue the Acta.

The stopping of the Journal naturally created a big communication gap, therefore, the starting of the quarterly "Management Letters" from the Headquarters in September, 1974 has served a very useful purpose in keeping some sort of link and as a means of diffusing information to all the members through the National Vice-Presidents of different countries.

Amendments: Amendments were made to the 1925 Statutes, as adopted at the Congress in 1927, at Arnhem on 26th July, at Bordeaux on 30th July, 1957, at Hahnovar on 31st August, 1966, and at Washington on 5th June, 1974.

Objects of the League as defined in the Statutes adopted by the Extraordinary General Assembly in Hahnovar are different from the earlier ones mentioned at 1927 Congress. These are: "The purpose of the League is the development of Homeopathy in the world and the creation of a link between Homeopaths with medical diplomas and also between societies and persons who are interested in Homeopathic questions.

The League has only a philanthropic purpose and must not carry on any business or trade."

Working: The League functions through the Executive Committee, the General Secretariat, the International Council and the General Assembly. The National Vice-Presidents in the different countries are the permanent link between the Council and the national Homeopathic organisations and occupy the most important position.

At the 1969 Congress, it was decided that in those countries that had a fair number of members of the League (mostly above twenty), an Assistant National Vice-President should be appointed in addition to the National Vice-President. Later, it was felt that some countries that did not have an eligible National Vice-President may be represented by "a representative" who does not vote. Also at the 1969 Congress, it was decided to create the office of Senior Vice-President, who after a term of three years would, by convention, become the President.

Membership: There are two classes of members:

(a) Active Members
(b) Associate Members

The respective rules of membership appear under Heading IV (Art. 4 to 17) of the Statutes. Briefly, the present regulations permit only "medical doctors with official diplomas of the university in their own country" to be active members. Other people interested in Homeopathy can become associate members. These regulations are being discussed for any possible amendments.

In Germany and France, the entire membership of the national Homeopathic organisations are also the members of the League en bloc. This is, of course, highly desirable and should be emulated by other countries.

The League and the United Nations Organisation: At the 1962 Congress, the President, Dr. Gagliardi regretfully reported that his approach to U.N.E.S.C.O. for recognition of the League was unsuccessful. There was considerable discussion about this and it was finally decided that the Secretary-General, Dr. Lamasson, again put out some feelers. Apparently, these efforts continued without success. Dr. Lamasson reviewed the situation in a letter sent at the time of the Jubilee Congress in 1975. He wrote,