Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 32.djvu/131

95 JENS IVERSON WESTENGARD 95 General Adviser to the Siamese government, to ofifer the position of Assistant Adviser to Westengard. The question whether to accept or to refuse this ofifer was a diffi- cult one. On the one hand, Westengard loved his work, and was successful in it. If he left it he would be giving up an honorable and congenial career for an uncertainty; and he would be leaving his wife and his young son behind him. On the other hand, the romance of the Orient, as well as the greatness of the work, attracted him. The fiat of his physician, that he must leave Cambridge for a time, turned the scale. He accepted the appointment, and, before the open- ing of the school in September, 1903, set out with Strobel for Siam. The work that was ready to the hand of these two teachers of law was indeed a wonderful one. The ancient kingdom of Siam, country of a peaceful folk, ruled by a king and government of cultivated gentlemen, was being squeezed between the upper and the nether millstone of British Burma and French Tonquin. The Advisers must obtain from Britain and France a just settlement of boundaries; they must foster a native government that could sus- tain the position thus acquired; and they must perfect and bring up to the Western standard the Siamese administrative system, already good for the Orient. Strobel was a skilled diplomat, and he was able to obtain favorable treaties almost at once. In sug- gesting governmental reforms they had the sympathetic and powerful support of King Chulalongkom, a very able and en- lightened monarch. A criminal code was adopted, and other necessary legislation obtained. After about five years of service, Strobel died of a lingering tropical disease contracted in Egypt during a short leave home, and Westengard became the General Adviser. His place had already been made among the Siamese. No one ever knew Westen- gard without loving him. The king he served was no exception, nor could one hear Westengard speak of the king without realizing that their affection was mutual. On Westengard's return to Siam after his first leave, the king was absent on a hunting trip, and his first word on reaching his capital was, "Is Westengard come?"; and as soon as he saw his adviser he kissed him on both cheeks. The favorite of a king is proverbially hated most cordially by the court, but no one ever hated or disliked Westengard. The great work which he did for the foreign relations of Siam