Georges CLEMENCEAU. Autograph manuscript, Livre jaune et Liv - Lot 256

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  3. Georges CLEMENCEAU. Autograph manuscript, Livre jaune et Liv - Lot 256
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Georges CLEMENCEAU. Autograph manuscript, Livre jaune et Liv - Lot 256
Georges CLEMENCEAU. Autograph manuscript, Livre jaune et Livre bleu, [1901]; 9 pages and a half in-4 with erasures and corrections (under a large frame). Violent criticism of DELCASSÉ's diplomatic policy towards Russia, on the occasion of the publication of the Yellow Book and the Blue Book, and about the nomination of Marshal Waldersee as generalissimo of the European troops in China (against the Boxers). This appointment was "a marked failure of French policy", and Clemenceau reproached Delcassé for hiding the truth behind lies: "The war appears to me as one of the greatest calamities that could befall us, and although many people may consider me - on the strength of my adversaries - as an unmeasured spirit, I have never been reproached for an imprudent word in questions of foreign policy in which I have taken sides [...] the greatest reserve does not at all imply the renunciation of our legitimate hopes. [...] the most elementary feeling of our dignity does not allow us to forgive the French who have been torn from France against their will. This will not be erased from history. It cannot be erased from our memory. When the whole of Europe is in arms, ready to throw itself, overnight, into the adventures of war, how can we not be ready to take advantage of the chances that may be given to us? Thus I have always spoken, thus I will always speak. [...] The policy of excessive colonial conquests that Jules Ferry launched (with the encouragement of Bismarck, as can be seen from the yellow books) has put us in a state of relative disarmament with regard to our enemy beyond the Vosges. [The professional patriots accused us of being bad Frenchmen because our patriotism was concerned with Europe before considering Africa or Asia. Today, these specialists of the "integral fatherland" who demonstrated their spirit of revenge by breaking German beer bottles in breweries, are now hanging their famous revenge program in the memory cabinet. It seems that these gentlemen are tired of such a long wait. We, less noisy, but more sure, remain firm in our inflexible claim to the rights of France. Clemenceau argued that the failure of Waldersee's appointment was due to "our ally Tsar Nicholas II [...] The diplomacy of the Quai d'Orsay has neglected no opportunity to lie". But Clemenceau uncovered the evidence of these lies in the Yellow Book and the Blue Book; he retraced in detail the background of this affair, before concluding: "But who gave Russia the habit of treating us with the wrong leg?
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