File No. 763.72119/433
The Ambassador in France ( Sharp) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 28, 4 p.m.]
1838. The deputies of the Socialist Party met yesterday and passed a resolution approving the admirable address of President Wilson to the Senate. The resolution briefly states in substance that the conception of peace founded upon the free will of the people and not upon the force of arms must be or become the charta of the civilized world, that the President’s note now confers a big and immense prestige to this affirmation of justice, inheritance of the French Revolution and tradition of their international congresses especially at a time when it becomes more than ever necessary that the democrats of all nations should rise up against imperialist ambitions and their sanguinary and ruinous consequences. The Socialist group insistently request the French Government to affirm clearly its agreement with the lofty words of reason of the President. To prepare and hasten the just and early end of the war, to insure the future of pacific civilization, the group request the representatives of all belligerent nations to bring pressure to bear upon their labors in order to make a loyal attempt to carry out the noble experiment offered to humanity by the chief of the great American republic.
This group comprises between 80 and 90 members of the Chamber, and its former leader was the noted orator Jaures who was assassinated a few days before the beginning of the war. A senator and a writer on one of the most widely read French papers tell me this morning that the action, accounts of which have been widely published in the press, of this group of Socialists will have great effect in developing sentiment in favor of the President’s message. Many professional men in and out of French Government circles have also told me that the message had their hearty approval. The general attitude of the French press has been to endorse its principles as [Page 34] wholly representative of those of the French Republic. Quite generally, however, the position is taken by these writers that peace should only come after victory to the Allies.