Note 61 — Chapter II · THE MEANS OF CONDUCTING WAR

To a petition of the diplomatists shut up in Paris to be allowed to send a courier at least once a week, Bismarck answered in a document of September 27th, 1870, as follows: “The authorization of exchange of correspondence in the case of a fortress is not generally one of the usages of war; and although we would authorize willingly the forwarding of open letters from diplomatic agents, in so far as their contents be not inconvenient from a military point of view, I cannot recognize as well founded the opinion of those who should consider the interior of the fortifications of Paris as a suitable center for diplomatic relations.”