Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-10-18

but the vaguest notion of what It
Some time before the Batonnier
had written in spirited response to
DIT. Won Sandt when he was made
the object Of official TeproacheS be-
cause a German had lost lawsuit
In a Belgian court. In that moment,
hOWever. il might be pretended that
the incident had been closed. the
inevitable conflict began. From
that time or, until the day OF his
deportation. Maitre Theodor did not
fear or fail, whenever the great
legal principles. of liberty were call
ed into question bE German intoler-
anCe. or German tyranny, to protest
to the very face Of the authorities.
lie wrote a series of letters to the
occupying power that are classics
Of the literature of the law and of
liberty, setting forth in clear and
stately. and often eloquent, words
the imprescriptable rights of courts.
OF litigants, of advocates who plead
before them and OF peoples who
lCOk to courts to stand as the guard
ianS of the principles on which free
institutions are founded. No lawyer
can read them without a glow of
pride in his profession and a nobler
conception of its dignity and its re-
spOnsibility. There is in them some
thing universal, as there is in all
great truths, and they apply as well
to the common law as to the civil
law.
Maitre Theodor did not content
himself, however, with filing pro-
tests; he opposed an active resist
ance to the Entertainments of the
invaders who were trying to Subju-
gate his land; and it was his great
service to his nation that he dis
covered those Entertainments that
were the most subtle and the most
insidious, entertainments that would
have passed unnoticed by those who
were incapable OF distinguishing
among the tragic events of the
times those that were of legal sig
nlhcance. For his resistance he en-
trenched himself behind a principle
of law, and in four great pleas be-
fore the courts of Belgium he ex-
posed the designs of the invaders,
pointed out the fatal consequences
that would result if they were al
lowed to pass unchallenged, and
kept his own land from acQuiescing
formally in its own destruction. In
SO doing, to use one of our old
American expressions, he blazed a
trail for others to follow, a trail
which was found plainly marked
when, later, the magistracy of Bel
GUM had to enter upon an even
more difficult way.
The noble and moving argument
in which the Batonnier, speaking for
the bar of Belgium, defined his.
country'S rights before the tribu-
nails of international law, and i'm
peached one of the greatest powers
in history of the high crime and
misdemeanor of having violated that
law, was crowned, on the 22d of
April, 1915, by decision of the
court in which the DEGREES of the
governor general were declared null
and void and of no force in BELGIUM.
h. SrTn Hxv he
court. of appeals, and when the case
was carried to the court of cassa-
tion the decision there, coming, as
the gOSSipS in the corridors of the
Palais de Justice said, out of di-
yided councils. was against Ma1tre
Theodor on the merits of the case
at bar, that lis, the court decided
that the occupant, under information
al law, had not gone too far in ere
ating the tribunals it had set up.
But the decision did lean toward
Maitre TheOdorS contention that
the occupants powers were limited
by international conventions, and il
left the door open to that decision
two years later when the entire
magistracy of Belgium resigned as
a protest against the 'inroadS on
Belgian sovereignty and independ-
ence which the Germans were con-
tinually making. If Maitre Theo-
dor was not Immediately and en-
tirely indicated by the court at the
time. he may be said to have had a
moral victory when the courts, or
the judges of the courts. adopted
in another emergency the attitude he
had asked them to adopt in this.
But whatever view may be taken
of that aspect of the matter, Maitre
Theodor's attitude was as great and
courageous an act of resistance as
any ever made by patriots. 1t set
a lofty standard for social attitude
and conduct in those later crises
which menaced the very existence
of the Belgian nation. Other deeds
were more sensational, more draS-
tic, others more deeply impressed
the popular imagination, but with
out in the least detracting from
their courageous quality or their
moral beauty. they were not of the
fundamental and lasting importance
of this which honors the name OF
Leon Theodor.
published by special arrange
ment with the Mcclure Newspaper
syndicate. Copyright, 1918, by
Brand Whitlock under the title,
Memories of Belgium Under the
German Occupation" All rights re-
served Copyrighted in Great Brit
ain, Canada and Australia. All rights
reserved for France. Belgium. Hol-
land. Italy, Spain. Russia and the
Scandinavian countrieS.)
CONTINUED Next IssusJ