File No. 763.72119/841
The Ambassador in France ( Sharp) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 20, 5.50 p.m.]
2510. Upon the convening of Parliament yesterday Mr. Painlevé, Premier of the new Ministry, in a brief speech outlined the policy of the Government. Speaking of the objects of France in the war, he said:
Dis-annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, reparation for the harm and ruin caused by the enemy, the conclusion of a peace which will not be a peace forced upon us containing the germ of future wars, but a just peace by which no people strong or weak shall be oppressed, a peace in which efficacious guarantees protect the society of nations against any aggression from one among them. Such are France’s noble objects in the war, if one may speak of war objects in the case of [Page 209] a nation which for forty-four years in spite of its open sores has done everything to save humanity from the horrors of war.
Until these objects have been attained France will continue to fight. Certainly to continue the war a day longer than necessary would be to commit the greatest crime in history but to finish it a day too soon would be to deliver up France to the most degrading servitude and material and moral misery from which nothing could ever free her.
The Premier expressed a hope that the institution of the republican government in Russia would result in the reestablishment of union and discipline. He referred in terms expressing great satisfaction to the recent victories of Italy and of the French and English on the western front, adding that on the eastern plains of France the American contingent are training fraternally with the French troops.
In view of the recent scandal growing out of the enemy’s efforts to undermine the national morale by insidious propaganda, invoking charges of corruption after failing to obtain supremacy on the battlefield, his declaration that they who placed themselves in the attitude of accomplices of that enemy would be punished to the full extent of the law, excited much interest.
His remarks were warmly applauded, the Socialists though not represented in the present Cabinet, giving their approbation as heartily as the followers of the other parties. The entire Parisian press join in approving the attitude of the new Ministry upon all policies affecting the war as expressed by Mr. Painlevé.