Government's Acts Beyond Reproach.
In the House of Commons the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs spoke of France, amid the applause of the members, in lofty and impassioned words, which have already elicited genuine response from all French hearts.
In the name of the Government of the Republic I wish, from this rostrum, to thank the British Government for the cordiality of its words, and the French Parliament will join me in this.
The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs made this declaration particularly:
That in case the German fleet entered the Channel or steamed northward in the North Sea to go around the British Isles with the purpose of attacking the French Coast or the French Navy, and to harass the French merchant marine, the English fleet would interfere by giving the French fleet its entire protection, in such manner that from that moment England and Germany would be in a state of war.
Thus, from the present moment, the English fleet is guarding our northern and western coast against German aggression.
Gentlemen, those are the facts. I think that, taken as a close-knit whole, they are sufficient to justify the acts of the Government of the Republic. Nevertheless, I wish to conclude by giving the true meaning of this unprecedented aggression of which France is the victim.
The victors of 1870, as you know, have felt at various times the desire of renewing the blows which they had dealt us. In 1875 the war for finishing vanquished France was prevented only by the intervention of the two powers destined to be united to us later by the ties of alliance and friendship—by the intervention of Russia and Great Britain.
Since then the French Republic, by the restoration of its strength and the making of diplomatic agreements, invariably lived up to, has succeeded in freeing itself from the yoke which Bismarck had been able to impose upon Europe even in days of peace.