Page:Paul Samuel Reinsch - Secret Diplomacy, How Far Can It Be Eliminated? - 1922.djvu/209



during the war this interval was considerably ex- tended. The precedents and principles elabo- rated in the diplomatic correspondence of the United States have been collected, codified and published in a very important and useful com- pendium by Francis Wharton, under the title of Digest of International Law. This work was ex- panded, amplified and brought down to date by Prof. John Bassett Moore, under the same title, in 1906. It is of the highest importance, not only as a repository of diplomatic and legal precedent, but as a definite and public record of the position taken by the American Government on all inter- national questions that had arisen up to the date of its publication. The preparation of such di- gest on the part of other governments is highly to be desired for the purpose of clarifying interna- tional law and policy, and for giving them a sound basis of reason and experience upon which the people and governments may rely. The fact that a precedent reported in this digest, might be cited against the American Government as an admis- sion, does not imply a disadvantage which would at all offset the benefits resulting in general from public knowledge.

With respect to the details of negotiation, there are confidential relationships which have always