File No. 763.72119/634

The Ambassador in France ( Sharp ) to the Secretary of State

[Telegram]

The President of the Council speaking before the Senate yesterday referred to the Socialist meeting at Stockholm and the French war aims; he said in part that the German Socialists had been from the very beginning save in rare exceptions the accomplices of the crimes committed against humanity and civilization and had approved at least by their silence all the atrocities committed by the Germans, that it would be a moral impossibility for French citizens as long as French soil remains violated to take part in discussions with such enemies, that the Government seeing the danger of these meetings realizes that peace could not be gained thereby. He also said that peace could only come with victory and that the danger of these meetings was in the illusion they might create of an early peace—

At no time should even the suspicion of such an illusion be allowed to form in France. France has need of all her forces, especially her moral forces which are the pledge of victory; on the other hand it must not be believed that the Governments are allowing the political direction of the war to slip out of their hands, the Government alone which represents national authority can exercise this right. We must speak plainly, we have wished to thrust away all the snares contained in the seductive formulas imported from outside into Petrograd. The origin of these formulas is only too clear. No annexions—that cannot mean that we shall not claim Alsace-Lorraine which has not ceased to be French at heart since the abominable actions which violated justice and right in 1871. No Frenchman would dare suggest that we shall not continue the war until these provinces return to the mother country. No indemnity—were it a question of humiliating or oppressing the vanquished we would not exact anything, but there are damages to be repaired; no French Government could relinquish such reparation after the unprecedented devastation suffered by our territory. We are in accord with the lofty and clear conscience of President Wilson. In the eyes of the United States the restitution of Alsace-Lorraine will not be a conquest, the reparation of damages will not be a war indemnity. We are sustained by the moral force and the conscience of the whole world, we must also have guarantees which will preserve our children from the recurrence of such horrors. When the time comes we shall consider what these guarantees should be. The best would be the constitution of a Europe where every nation would belong to itself.

After a secret session the following resolution was carried by unanimous vote: [Page 89]

The Senate, taking note of the declarations of the President of the Council, convinced that a durable peace can result only from the victory of the Allied armies, affirms the will of France firm in its alliances, faithful to its ideal of independence and liberty for all peoples to pursue the war until the restitution of Alsace and Lorraine, the punishment of the crimes, the reparation of the damages, the obtaining of guarantees against an offensive return of German militarism, has confidence in order to obtain these results in the responsible Government which alone has the right to engage the country under the control of the Chambers and counting upon its energy to take all the measures of internal and external order necessary for the safety of the nation passes to the order of the day.

Sharp