19143 A Dramatic Incident 



justified under international law. He also contended 

 that the documents (which, however, as King Albert 

 had publicly stated, contained nothing that had not 

 been known to Germany at the time) showed that 

 in case of war Britain would be permitted to attack 

 Germany through Belgium, and the Fatherland had 

 therefore merely exercised its necessary right of 

 defense. 



He then went on to discuss at length the methods special 

 by which treaties may be abrogated, his argument P ieadin 

 resting on a series of quotations from a work on inter- 

 national law by Dr. Oppenheim, whom he pronounced 

 an authority of highest rank on the subject. The 

 purport of these disconnected extracts was not 

 easily grasped by his auditors, who had, neverthe- 

 less, the feeling that they were being imposed upon. 

 Knowing that they were, I asked the privilege of 

 adding a few words. 



Dr. Oppenheim was one of my personal friends, 

 I said, and American scholars held his treatise in 

 great esteem, it being used as a textbook in the 

 Naval War College. I was therefore glad to hear 

 just praise awarded that distinguished scholar, a 

 German born in Freiburg, where he was once pro- 

 fessor. Later, because of his unquestioned eminence, 

 he was called from the University of Basel to Cam- 

 bridge. I happened to have in my pocket at the 

 very moment a letter from him which I would like 

 to share with those present. This read as follows: 



Cambridge, Aug. 8, 1914 

 Dear Dr. Jordan: 



When we met last we did not know that Germany was 

 perpetrating the greatest international crime which has been 

 committed since the time of Napoleon I, namely the violation 



C 655 3 



