第5章

While the continent of Europe was racked by internal wars, which English diplomacy had incited, Great Britain acquired her vast colonial possessions.England has implicated us too in wars which redounded to her sole advantage.I need only refer to the bloody, exhausting war of 1877-8, and to the disastrous peace of San Stefano, where England's intrigues deprived us of the price of our victory over the Crescent.I refer, further, to the Crimean War, in which a small English and a large French army defeated us to the profit and advantage of England.That England, and England alone, is again behind this attack upon us by Japan has been dwelt upon by those who have already addressed you.Our enemies do not see themselves called upon to depart in the slightest degree from a policy that has so long stood them in such good stead, and it must, therefore, be our policy to assure ourselves of the alliance, or at least, where an alliance is unattainable, of the benevolent neutrality of the other continental Powers in view of a war with England.To begin with, as regards our ally, the French Republic, a satisfactory solution of our task in this direction is already assured by the existing treaties.Yet these treaties do not bind the French Government to afford us military support in the case of a war which, in the eyes of shortsighted observers, might perhaps be regarded as one which we had ourselves provoked.We have accordingly opened negotiations through our Ambassador with M.

Delcasse, the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, and with the President of the Republic himself.I have the supreme satisfaction of being in a position to lay before you the result of these negotiations in the form of a despatch just received from our Ambassador in Paris.It runs, in the main, as follows: 'I hasten to inform Your Excellency that, in the name of the French Republic, M.Delcasse has given me the solemn assurance that France will declare war upon England at the moment His Majesty the Tsar has directed his armies to march upon India.The considerations which have prompted the French Government to take this step have been further explained to me by M.Delcasse in our conference of this day, when he expressed himself somewhat as follows: "Napoleon, a hundred years ago, perceived with rare discernment that England was the real enemy of all continental nations, and that the European continent could not pursue any other policy but to combine in resisting that great pirate.The magnificent plan of Napoleon was the alliance of France with Spain, Italy, Austria, Germany, and Russia, in order to combat the rapacity of England.And he would, in all probability, have carried his scheme through had it not been that considerations of domestic policy determined the Tsar Alexander I., in spite of his admiration for Napoleon's ability, to run counter to the latter's intentions.The consequences of Napoleon's defeat have shown themselves sufficiently clearly during the past hundred years in the enormous growth of the English power.

The present political constellation, which in many respects is very similar to that of the year 1804, should be utilised to revive Napoleon's plan once more.Russia has, of course, the first and most vital interest in the downfall of England, for, so long as Great Britain controls all the seas and all the important coastlines, it is like a giant whose hands and feet are fettered.

Yet France is also checked in her natural development.Her flourishing colonies in America and the Atlantic Ocean were wrested from her in the eighteenth century.She was ousted by this overpowering adversary from her settlements in the East Indies and--what the French nation feels perhaps most acutely--Egypt, purchased for France by the great Napoleon with the blood of his soldiers, was weaned away by English gold and English intrigues.

The Suez Canal, built by a Frenchman, Lesseps, is in the possession of the English, facilitating their communications with India, and securing them the sovereignty of the world.France will accordingly make certain stipulations as the price of its alliance--stipulations which are so loyal and equitable that there is no question whatever of their not being agreed to on the part of her ally, Russia.France demands that her possessions in Tonking, Cochin China, Cambodia, Annam, and Laos shall be guaranteed; that Russia be instrumental in assisting her to acquire Egypt, and that it pledge itself to support the French policy in Tunis and the rest of Africa." In accordance with my instructions, I felt myself empowered to assure M.Delcasse that his conditions were accepted on our side.In answer to my question, whether a war with England would be popular in France, the Minister said: "The French people will be ready for any sacrifice if we make Fashoda our war-cry.

British insolence never showed itself more brutal and insulting than over this affair.Our brave Marchand was on the spot with a superior force, and France was within her rights.The simple demand of an English officer, who possessed no other force but the moral one of the English flag, compelled us, however, under the political circumstances which then obtained, to abandon our righteous claims, and to recall our brave leader.How the French people viewed this defeat has been plainly seen.The Parisians gave Marchand a splendid ovation as a national hero, and the French Government seriously contemplated the possibility of a revolution.