"
When we have estimated the nature and extent of Germany's greed,
calculated the number of her demands and ambitions, reflected by the
light of history and German exaggerations, on the character of the
German race and its unbridled lust of domination, then the National,
Colonial and Continental interests of France (considered
dispassionately and without hatred for the conqueror or resentment for
the cruel and humiliating past) do not lie in the direction of a
_rapprochement_ with Germany. They lie in the establishment and
combination of the Slav States in Europe, in a more effective alliance
with Russia, and a _rapprochement_ between the Latin nations.
March 27, 1899. [2]
By our resistance, since the national defeat of 1871, we have pledged
ourselves not to accept it. Our moral position and the dignity of our
claims to restitution have been worthy of our history because we
inveterate Frenchmen have never ceased to maintain that our power over
Alsace-Lorraine has been overthrown by force, but that our rights
remain undiminished. Austria, to Germany, and Italy, to Austria, have
sacrificed this moral position and the dignity of their respective
claims, in return for an alliance which, besides being treacherously
false, has brought them neither wealth nor honour.
But alas! even whilst our rights became strengthened by our very
faithfulness and constancy, our rulers were yielding to the insidious
counsels of the enemy.
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