Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress with the Annual Message of the President, December 5, 1870
No. 104.
M. Berthemy to Mr. Fish.
Mr. Secbetaby of State: The minister of foreign affairs addresses to me, under date of August 31 and September 2, various communications [Page 141] to which he requests me to call the attention of the Government of the United States, and which refute the accusations made by the government of the North German Confederation against the French army, which has been represented by said government, in several official documents, as voluntarily setting aside, in the present war, the rules of international law. Having reason to think that the documents to which I allude have been formally brought to the notice of the Department of State, I take the liberty of laying before you the reply of my government to the allegations which they contain.
Accept, Mr. Secretary of State, the assurances of my very high consideration.
Hon. Hamilton Fish, &c., &c., &c.
The minister of foreign affairs to the minister of France at Washington.
Sir: The Prussian government has pretended, in documents of which we have had knowledge, that our soldiers have disregarded the rules of international law, by voluntarily firing on ambulances and hearers of flags of truce. Before even calling the attention of the minister of war to these allegations, I protested in the name of the traditions of our army, and as soon as my colleague was informed of them, he warmly approved of the language which I had used. Mistakes may occur in the heat of battle; we, more just than our adversary, admit that neither of the two armies is sure of not committing such errors. But Prussia will persuade no one that our soldiers have deliberately set at naught the sacred privilege of ambulances and the freedom of flags of truce, and we have no need to defend ourselves against such accusations.
It seems, moreover, that the Prussian government has shown so much eagerness to avail itself of facts, regrettable indeed, though hitherto not proved, and at all events isolated, in order to have some pretext to justify itself for much graver acts with which we have to charge it, and for which the corps commanders are much more directly responsible.
Every one knows the incident of the ambulance called “de la Presse,” which was seized with the persons and supplies which it contained, and which was obliged to pass through a part of Germany, and through Luxemburg and Belgium, in order to reënter France. The same thing is stated to have occurred again in the neighborhood of Metz.
Near Strasburg the Baron de Bussière was taken prisoner in the midst of the ambulances which he had organized, and to which he was giving his attention. It is equally notorious that a French surgeon was killed on the field of battle by a Prussian soldier, while in the act of attending to the injuries of a wounded man.
It further appears from the testimony given by one of our physicians, in the presence of witnesses whose declaration has been received at the vice-consulate of France, at Basle, that explosive bullets have been used against our troops, and have been found in the bodies of some of our wounded. These are so many violations, not only of the usages of all armies in modern times, but also of the formal stipulations of diplomatic conventions to which Prussia was a contracting party.
Finally, the public journals have announced that the peasants near Strasburg have been required to dig the trenches opened by the Prussians before the place. We at first refused to give credit to these rumors. We could not regard as possible an act of violence no less repugnant to the laws of war than to those of humanity. The certain proofs which have since reached us leave no longer any doubt concerning the entire accuracy of these statements. The Prussian authorities have not hesitated to adopt a measure which obliges the defenders of Strasburg to fire on Frenchmen.
If Prussia should continue these odious proceedings she would stamp her military operations with a character for atrocity which would place her under the ban of civilized nations. We protest in the name of universal conscience against such abuses of power, and in requesting you to call to them the particular attention of the Government to which you are accredited, I feel confident that public opinion will visit them with just condemnation.
Receive, &c.
The minister of foreign affairs to the minister of France at Washington.
Sir: In a telegram addressed to Count Bernstorff, to be communicated to us through the agency of the minister of the United States at Paris, Count Bismarck makes known the treatment which Prussia intends to reserve for our independent marksmen. He declares that only men who can be recognized within gunshot, as soldiers, shall be considered and treated as such. He adds that the blue blouse is the national costume; that the red cross on the arm can only be discerned at a short distance, and may be removed or replaced at any moment, so that it becomes impossible for the Prussian troops to distinguish the persons from whom they have to expect acts of hostility and on whom they ought to fire. He announces, in consequence, that all those who, not being on all occasions and at a proper distance recognizable as soldiers, may kill or wound any Prussians, shall be tried by court-martial.
I have transmitted this communication to the minister of war. The following is his reply:
The national garde mobile and the independent marksmen, who are assimilated thereto by their organization, or who have been formed by regular authority, represent a force constituted by French law. Their costume has been defined, and the blue blouse with red ornaments of the men of the national garde mobile, who also wear the military cap, cannot be confounded, in good faith, with the garb of the peasants of France. The minister of war does not, therefore, hesitate to declare that if Prussia treats such troops as not belonging to the army, the French corps commanders will retaliate upon the men of the landwehr and of the landsturm, who represent the same forces in Germany.
I beg you, sir, to bring this declaration to the notice of the government to which you are accredited, and I do not doubt that it will share the impression made upon us by the proceeding in question, as likewise by the painful necessity under which it places us.
Receive, &c.
The minister of foreign affairs to the minister of France at Washington.
Sir: The Prussian official journal, and all the German papers which obey the same inspirations, have sought to excite public opinion against us on account of the measures which the subjects of Prussia and its allies have been the object in France since the commencement of the war.
It has been openly asserted, and every effort is made to induce the belief, that the government of the Emperor, after having first tolerated the presence of citizens of the enemy’s country, took measures for their general expulsion. This assertion is absolutely at variance with the truth, and of this the cabinet of Berlin cannot be ignorant.
When the ministry of the 10th of August was called to power, it was obliged, by reason of the circumstances, to examine the situation of the Germans in France. It did so, regarding the interest of the country and the personal security of these foreigners at the same time, for it was obliged to consider the annoying consequences of the great excitement which is caused in France by excesses of all kinds committed in the rural districts against an unoffending population, and a system of espionage without precedent in the annals of war.
The government did not, however, adopt a general measure of expulsion, however legitimate it would have been after the unworthy treatment of which our citizens, and even some French consular agents, have been the victims in Germany. It confined itself to favoring the removal of all those who desired to return to their own country. To this effect the minister of the interior exempted them from the formality of safe conducts for leaving the country, and from that of the French visa previously required for their passports. The mass of the German residents, so numerous throughout the territory of the empire, was in no wise affected.
Friendly explanations were given on this subject by the minister of the interior and myself to the ministers of America and Switzerland, as well as to the chargé d’affaires of Russia, to which functionaries the German governments had confided the protection of their citizens in France. In fact, the majority of these foreigners did not leave the territory of the empire. Everyone knows with what moderation the orders of the French government were enforced, and no one can truthfully maintain, as is done by the Berlin journals, that the Emperor’s government has shown itself pitiless and cruel toward the German residents.
Quite recently, in view of the march of the Prussian army on Paris, General Trochu, [Page 143] by virtue of the powers intrusted to him, promulgated an order obliging every subject of the enemy to leave Paris and the department of the Seine in the space of three days, and to leave France or to retire to one of the departments situated beyond the Loire.
This measure was dictated by considerations of public necessity, upon which I have no need to insist, and in my previous interviews with the ministers of the United States and Switzerland, as well as with the chargé d’affaires of Russia, I had taken care to reserve with regard to this the full and entire liberty of appreciation of the government. The presence of several thousands of Germans in Paris during the operations of a siege would have been a source of peril to themselves as well as of danger to the defense, and every one understood that this order, however painful it was to those affected by it, still bore the impress of that generous sentiment by which the French people are habitually actuated in their conduct, even toward an enemy, in the midst of the heat of a struggle; for their patriotism will never cause them to forget the laws of humanity. The government, moreover, in the order of August 28 stopped short of what it might legitimately have done, since it confined itself to removing the Germans from the capital, still allowing them to remain in the departments situated beyond the Loire, and this restriction, placed by ourselves upon the exercise of our right, is a new and irrecusable evidence of the falsity of the allegation of the Prussian official journal, according to which, since the 10th of August, all Germans settled in France have been included in a measure of expulsion. I beg you to point out the falseness of these assertions to the Cabinet at Washington, and in order to reduce them to their just value it will be sufficient for you to oppose to them our acts.
Receive, sir, &c.,
M. Berthemy, Minister of France, Washington.