Octave MIRBEAU (1848-1917). Autograph manuscript signed, souls of war, [September 1904]; 2 pages in-4 and half page oblong in-8. Vibrant article to denounce the non-intervention in the Russo-Japanese war, published in L'Humanité of September 25, 1904. He cannot detach his thoughts from "this gloomy and painful Manchuria, where is accomplished, is continued, with the assent of Europe, under the safeguard of the civilized world, and, in a way, under its blessing, one of the most abominable crimes of humanity"... Mirbeau ironizes on the casualness of his compatriots, fond of pleasures and reluctant to intervene in a conflict initiated by their allies, those who would like to wait for the complete victory of Russia, and who denigrate the "theoretical, purely metaphysical" victories of Japan. "Let's wait two, five, ten twenty years, if necessary... We will continue to slaughter each other there... But what are we risking?. Life is good, our restaurants are always the first in the world... There are always the prettiest girls in the theaters of Paris"... We watch the two peoples fighting as we would observe a brawl on the public highway: "let's not intervene until one of them is dead... This is, moreover, the true doctrine of diplomacy. See how it acts with the Armenians!. It too, to intervene in these horrible massacres, waits until the last Armenian is killed! [...] Finally, allies, not of the Russian people, whose infinite pains, like those of all peoples, are absolutely indifferent to us, but allies of the tzar, whose glory alone is important to us, let us not be less faithful tzarists than he is, who recently pronounced this heroic and marvelous word: "As long as I have one man and one ruble left, I will not give in!"... Because men belong to the tzar, don't they? [...] And when, after years of killings and slaughters, the poor devils, escaped from the massacre, will return to their homes, the tzar and the mikado will know how to remind them a respect of the property and the human life"...