4 INTELLECTUAL COOPERATION IN WAR-TIME AND PLANS ... 359Bonnet felt that Potter’s letter could ‘easily’ be interpreted by Bruns
as an invitation to participate in the ‘general work’ of the ISC and
that Bruns was being asked ‘for an ordinary contribution to be circu-
lated in some way as any other one in connection with the work of the
Conference’. Bonnet reminded Potter that the ISC’s executive commit-
tee had resolved that Potter would ‘attempt to obtain in...[his]...“per-
sonal capacity” information...from contributors like Professor Bruns’.
Bonnet added that he thought the letter sent to Bruns should have been
drafted differently from the letters that Potter had sent members of the
conference or to ‘specially invited international experts.’^28
There was one further point of contention between Bonnet and
Potter. In a letter addressed to Potter, Bonnet called attention to a
paragraph in the minutes of the Eighth Meeting of the GRC’s execu-
tive committee which dealt with an item entitled ‘Correspondence with
Professor Berber’. It should be noted that at this stage Berber remained
a member of the GRC’s governing board. The paragraph in question
stated that the GRC’s director had ‘mentioned a letter received from
Professor Berber and a visit of Dr. [Wolfgang] Krauel, the German con-
sul in Geneva.’ It noted that Krauel had ‘expressed much interest in
the work’ of the GRC and the ISC and had offered ‘to facilitate corre-
spondence by transmitting any letters to Professor Berber in the consu-
lar bag’. The paragraph concluded with the statement that ‘the members
saw no inconvenience in using this method of communication.’^29 In
relation to this matter, Bonnet offered Potter the following stern
advice:
(^28) Henri Bonnet to Pitman B. Potter, April 6, 1940, AG 1-IICI-K-I-24, UA. See also
Potter to Bonnet, April 15, 1940. Potter told Bonnet that ‘on every single point I disagree
vigorously and completely with your criticism.’ AG 1-IICI-K-I-24, UA.
Institute under the Nazi regime and to ‘continue to relate to foreign writers and litera-
ture.’ However, Vagts also notes, that Bruns was ‘arguably the greatest servant of the Third
Reich among the international lawyers. Without raising his voice in Nazi frenzy, Bruns pro-
vided the regime with the respectability that his long career as scholar, arbitrator and nego-
tiator had built up. As chair of the German academy’s committee on international law, he
greeted foreign scholars and diplomats, and by remaining in the post assured them that the
regime could not really be so bad.’ Detlev F. Vagts, ‘International Law in the Third Reich,’
American Journal of International Law 84, no. 3 (1990): 661–704, 669, 673, 680.
(^29) Henri Bonnet to Pitman B. Potter, April 9, 1940, AG 1-IICI-K-I-24, UA.