Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 32.djvu/143

JENS IVERSON WESTENGARD 107 1 GOOD many of my American friends who attended Professor -^^ Westengard's funeral last September have expressed to me their surprise at the large number of students Siam has sent to Harvard University. I had to explain that not all of them were Harvard men; in fact only a few were Uving in Cambridge, but that the majority of them have come from other colleges and schools to pay their last respects to the man who through his notable achievement in their country has become so well known to all of them, and whose death meant so great a loss not only to their government and people but especially to themselves too. For although with his retirement Mr. Westengard indeed severed his oflScial relations with Siam in the capacity of one of her high gov- ernment officials, he nevertheless preserved that great interest for the future welfare of the country that he for many years so faith- fully served. An instance of his friendship to Siam is well shown by his relation to the officials of the Siamese Legation in Washington, to whom he was the best adviser on the internal affairs of Siam herself, as well as on her relations with foreign powers. Just as lively was, however, his interest in the progress and development of the Siamese students, whether sent to this country by the Government or private persons, for as he himself has said, in the hands of these young men lies the future of Siam. None appreciates his remark better than the Siamese students themselves. Although Mr. Westengard's relations to the Siamese students in the United States would only form a very small chapter of the history of his great work for the good of Siam, it is none the less of some interest, as it illustrates in a small scale how his sympathetic attitude towards the Siamese people has earned him such a splendid position of love and respect deep in their hearts. ' There are a considerable number of Siamese students in this country, some sent by the Siamese government, some by unoflBcial enterprise, and some by their own families. An official of the Legation supervises all the educational work of these students. This article was prepared on their behalf as an expression of their apprecia- tion of the memory of Professor Westengard. — Ed.