International Vegetarian Union

International Vegetarian Union (IVU)

Louis H. van Loon
IVU Council Member 1971 (or earlier) to 1982

From an article in the Nov/Dec issue of The British Vegetarian, by Woodland Kahler, President of IVU:

It would take me too long to give a detailed account of all the forty or more affiliations of the I.V.U. in various foreign lands, and so I shall mention only the most recent report I have just received from Mr Louis H. van Loon, President of the newly formed South African Vegetarian Union, composed of a number of societies in the main centres which include among others Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, East London and Cape Town. In regard to the vegetarian magazine, Man, published by the South African Union, Mr van Loon wrote to me that he is getting responses from readers, commentators, librarians and critics in many parts of the world - one more proof of an awakening world-wide interest in vegetarianism. Mr van Loon went on to say that his purpose is to call attention to the natural principles and universal laws that govern man and atom, cell and galaxy, and to lead modern man out of the materialistic morass of living into which he has fallen. It seems to me that Mr van Loon has very well expressed the aims of the vegetarian way of life.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING on 6th Sept. 1971 at The Hague, Holland - Ntherlands Congress Centre
Venues for the next Congress were reported as offered by Sweden & South Africa. These were passed to Congress which selected Sweden for the 22nd World Vegetarian Congress in Summer 1973.

In the March-1972 Newsletter from the Spanish Vegetarian Federation, appears a report about the XXI World Vegetarian Congress, on data given by the official Spanish delegate, Agustín Belda. Some of the points are these:

The International Council was appointed as follows: . . . Mr. L.H. van Loon and Dr. C.A. Skriver, as Executive Deputy Presidents. . . .

23rd WORLD VEGETARIAN CONGRESS OF THE INTERNATIONAL VEGETARIAN UNION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MAINE, ORONO, Nr.BANGOR, MAINE, U.S.A. - FROM 16th AUGUST TO 28th AUGUST 1975

Members of the International Council: . . . Mr L.H.van Loon (S.Africa). . . . [not listed as one ofr the four 'Executive Vice-Presidents this time]

24TH World Vegetarian Congress of the International Vegetarian Union at New Delhi, India from 18th Nov to 23rd Nov. 1977 - BUSINESS SESSIONS AND GENERAL MEETING

Members of the International Council of IVU: . . . Mr L.H.van Loon (S.Africa); . . .

The IVU Membership records show that the South African Vegetarian Union paid subscriptions of £4.00 in 1975 and 76, but nothing from 1977 onwards.

At the IVU International Council meeting in 1975 there was a proposal to hold the IVU World Vegetarian Congress in South Africa in 1977, but it went to India - possibly because SAVU was already struggling at that time.

GENERAL MEETING ON WEDNESDAY 25th August from 09.30 to 13.00 hrs. in the Assembly Hall of the Edward Herbert building, University of Technology, Loughborough, Leicestershire, England, U.K. -1979

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL: . . Mr.H.van Loon; . . .

Minutes of a meeting of the International Council of I.V.U. held at the Movenpick Hotel, Edwin-Scharff-Haus, Silcherstrasse 40, Neu-Ulm, West Germany, on Satturday 11th and Sunday,12th July, 1981.

The Hon. General Secretary reported that Mr L van Loon had written to state that he had not been active in I,V.U, for some years and should not have been elected at the last World Congress and so now offered his resignation.