M. Pichon (Minister for Foreign Affairs): M. Franklin-Bouillon has just made a passionate indictment, as he usually does, not only against French, but also against Allied policy. It is Allied policy which I am going to defend. (Hear, hear.)

The Government takes credit to itself for having always loyally served the policy of the Alliance, while at the same time it endeavored, often successfully, to make its own views prevail. It believes that it has thus rendered signal service to the country, on the eve of the opening of peace negotiations and before a conference, where it is above all things important that Allied policy should triumph. (Cheers.)

I want, in the first place, to dispel the error which would be made were there to be attributed to the Government any intention of refusing systematically to discuss diplomatic questions, or of answering by silence the questions addressed to it.

Nothing is further from our thoughts. But we cannot help it if, by the force of circumstances, all diplomatic questions are at this moment inter-Allied questions. We cannot, therefore, answer them with the same freedom as in normal times. (Cheers.)

Peace raises every problem simultaneously; it raises the problem of Europe, of Asia, of Africa, of America, and of Oceania.

I am, indeed, obliged to confess that every State is interested in these questions. Under these circumstances,

how can you expect us to answer all the questions asked of us, without betraying the secret of negotiations which are not our property?

The Government asks the Chamber to understand the reserve which is imposed on it. (Hear, hear.) I can assure the Chamber that on every question the Government holds definite opinions and has considered solutions, and that the negotiations for the meeting of the conference are being carried on under excellent conditions. We shall not be taken unawares at any point, and we shall be able to maintain in the peace, that agreement between the Allies, which has brought us victory and which will bring to the world that peace of justice which is, indeed, its due after so many sufferings and sacrifices. (Cheers.)

All the interests of France will be defended by us as they ought to be, from the territorial, economic, and financial point of view.

The visits which we are receiving from the heads of States and from sovereigns show the prestige which we enjoy throughout the whole world and the importance which these nations attach to our friendship with them. (Cheers.)

Never has our country's position been better, grown great as it has in the opinion of all by the part it has taken in the war. (Cheers.)

M. Cachin* has asked me what our opinion is on the question of the publication of the agreements which are preparatory to the conference. We see

*Moderate Socialist.

(Hear, hear.)

M. Bracke has questioned us on the League of Nations. We have accepted the principle of this League of Nations and we shall work for its effective realization. (Hear, hear.)

M. Bracke has also asked us to show ourselves clearly opposed to the policy of annexations.

M. Viollette: † And the German demobilization?

The Minister (continuing): Neither with regard to territorial frontiers, nor in any other respect, must the Germany of to-morrow be the Germany of yesterday. The world must be forearmed against a renewal of such provocations and attempts as ended in the bloody drama from which we emerge so cruelly mutilated. (Hear, hear.)

The disappearance of Austria creates a problem which we must look at from every point of view, without exaggerating its gravity.

The complete collapse of the Danube Monarchy has been such as to surpass all prophecies; but the Empire of the Hapsburgs has deserved its fate. For ten years it was the Power which most threatened the peace of Europe. It almost provoked a war in 1908, at the time of the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and possibly it was the intervention of France which preserved peace. In 1913 it tried to profit by difficulties in the Balkans to provoke a new conflict, and this would have succeeded if it had not been for Italy's desire for peace. Lastly, in 1914, it at last declared war, after that assassination at Sarajevo over which there still hangs so much mystery. Finally, Austria, in the course of the present war, has not ceased to be the accomplice and faithful ally of Germany. Do not let us pity her; even those who used to

* Socialist.

† A member of the Right.

ence as a counterpoise, and who to-day realize the emptiness of this idea, do not regret her downfall.

Of the Empire of the Hapsburgs there remain but a weak German part and a Hungary purely Magyar. But there have arisen out of it nations full of life, united to the Allies: Bohemia and the Jugo-Slav State (cheers), and also Poland, reconstituted together with its German and Austrian parts into one State, to whose resurrection the Allies have pledged themselves by a common agreement. (Cheers.) And we have the right to say that it is we who first worked

M. Jean Longuet: And yet you were not in agreement on this point with Russia two years ago!

The Foreign Minister: We desire, then, a Poland restored as a whole [intégralement], with free access to the sea. And we are pursuing our efforts towards this end, in agreement with the National Polish Committee,* recognized as a regular Government by all the Allies. And to-day, in answer to certain accusations, I desire to bring to the notice of this House the proof that to this National Committee adhesions are coming in from all sides. Russian Poland considers it to be her representative (exclamations and protests from the extreme Left). The German Poles have entrusted their interests to it. The Populist Party in Galicia has done the same (fresh exclamations). We have agreed to, and even suggested, the journey to France of the representative of General Pilsudski, who forms the Government of Warsaw, and we hope for an early and complete agreement among all the elements which ought to coöperate in reëstablishing Poland! It is we, again, who were the first to set on foot the resurrection of Bohemia (cheers); we first

* In Paris.

recognized the Czecho-Slovak State. Masaryk, Kramar, Bénès, and we created the Czecho-Slovak army. Moreover, it was to the strains of the 'Marseillaise' that the first regiment of the Czech army made its entrance into Prague with the representative of France, the sole representative of the Allies, and I have here the moving speech addressed by M. Kramar to the French Minister, M. ClémentSimon, which ends with these words: "Tell France, lovely and rejoicing, from us, how we love her, and how we desire to prove to her our gratitude and our loyalty.' (General and prolonged cheers.) The Jugo-Slav State has been constituted under the direction of the Serbs and of the Karageorgevitch dynasty; for the Allies it is a considerable reinforcement of power and a new guaranty of security. (Cheers.)

There remains the question of the Germans of Austria. It is a serious one. It must not frighten us. We have the means of solving it in such a way that it will not bring to Germany the compensations for which she hopes. In settling the new situation the Allies will strictly reduce German power and will deprive her of the possibility of finding in the Austrian populations what she will have lost through the consecration of our victory. But this victory must be translated into the exercise of all our right to deprive our enemies of the possibility of imperiling the world's security.

M. Renaudel:* What if the Austrians wish of their own accord to be incorporated in Germany?

The Minister: Do you not believe that victory gives rights over the vanquished? (Loud protests from the extreme Left.)

M. Jean Longuet: And yet M. Clemenceau told us: 'Be strong in order to be just.'

* Leader of the French Socialist Party.

The Minister: The Bulgarian defeat will procure for our Serb, Greek, and Rumanian brothers the fulfillment of their hopes, and this will increase in that part of Europe the freedom which is based on friendships firmly cemented in the course of this war.

Turkey has no less deserved her fate. It depended entirely on herself whether she was to escape the lot which has now been reserved for her.

We had only friendly feelings for the Turks, and we had shown them those feelings while protecting the peoples enslaved under the Ottoman Empire and over whom we had secular rights. These rights, in Syria, the Lebanon, Cilicia, and in Palestine, arise out of historical titles, agreements, agreements, and

contracts.

M. Cachin: The Syrians demand their freedom: that is the contract.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs: These rights are also based on the aspirations and wishes of the populations which have been our clients for a long time.

Doubtless, we recognize the complete liberty of the conference and its right to give to these agreements their proper conclusion. But these agreements continue to bind England and ourselves, and the rights which they recognize are already acquired as between England and ourselves. (Interruptions.)

M. Cachin: Your interpretation does not agree with that of M. Aristide Briand. (Interruptions.)

M. Aristide Briand: There can be no two interpretations.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs: I said the other day that I had exerted myself, both in the question of our Eastern frontier and on the subject of our secular rights in Asia Minor, to obtain a preliminary settlement of questions between the Allies in such a way that there should be no discus

sion between them at the conference table.

These agreements will be submitted to the conference and discussed there. But it is quite certain that, unless she disowns her word, England will ratify them, as she has signed them. (Hear, hear.)

M. Cachin: Are these rights acquired rights, yes or no?

The Minister for Foreign Affairs: Yes, as between England and ourselves. (Interruptions.) We cannot be indifferent to the lot of unhappy Armenia, ever exposed to fresh misfortunes. We shall address ourselves to our Allies with confidence and with the firm intention of maintaining our claims.

On the subject of Africa, the conference will examine the question of the German colonies, which will be put by England and by ourselves.

We shall also have to free ourselves in Morocco from those international restrictions which were a result of the conference of Algeciras. (Loud cheers.)

Besides all these problems, there is one which we could not neglect from any point of view; I mean the Russian question.

Russia, our Ally, withdrew from the war by the act of the Bolshevik Government to which she is submitting. It caused her withdrawal by tearing up all treaties and all contracts (cheers); after that it signed a shameful treaty which delivered her to Germany and Austria-Hungary.

This treaty we, on our part, have forced Germany and Austria-Hungary to tear up. (Loud cheers.) How could we, our Allies and ourselves, have remained unmoved in the face of an act which had the effect of an incalculable victory for our enemies? The idea of hesitation never for a moment entered our minds.

All that we have been doing in Russia against the Bolsheviki during the past year, we have been doing against the Germans. (Cheers.) Is it said that we had no policy? Are we asked why we had troops at Archangel, at Mourmansk, at various points in Siberia? It was in order to prevent the return of German troops to the Western front; it was also in order to prevent the seizure of Russia by Germany, to save the Czecho-Slovaks, to allow those Russian groups which had remained loyal to the Allies to organize themselves and to struggle against ruin and anarchy, the consequences of which might spread to ourselves.

Nothing of all this constitutes an intervention contrary to the rights of Russia, and we shall exercise no pressure on any Russian citizen to force him to choose one Government rather than another. But we shall defend in Russia our rights which have been violated by the Bolsheviki. (Cheers.)

What has been the result of these operations? What may be their development? At Mourmansk and Archangel, where over twenty thousand men are stationed under the command of an English general, we have succeeded in cutting off from the Bolsheviki a district which serves as a base for access to Russia from the North. We are established there on a good understanding with a Socialist Government devoted to the Entente.

We, therefore, have possibilities of action, on the day when this shall become necessary, in a country where many of our nationals are imprisoned and threatened with death. (Loud cheers.)

In Siberia, where General Jánin is in command of the Allied Forces to the East of Baikal, we have destroyed the Austro-German and Bolshevik army on the River Amur.

Connected operations have cleared

the Trans-Siberian Railway up to the Urals, allowing us to reinforce the Ural front, and have facilitated the creation in Siberia of governmental organisms at Ufa, at Omsk. . . .

M. Franklin-Bouillon: The members of these governments are all in prison. Your information is deplorable. (Interruptions.) You are reading a note sent you by your Department! (Continued interruptions.)

The Minister for Foreign Affairs: What do you say?

M. Georges Clemenceau (Premier and Minister for War): They are telling you that you are reading a note from your Department, which you cannot control. Answer.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs: This note has been written by the Russian branch of the Foreign Ministry; it is based on documents furnished by the Ministry of War.

M. Franklin-Bouillon: Do you know that the men of whom you speak were arrested at Omsk three weeks ago by Admiral Koltchak?

The Minister for Foreign Affairs: The Government of Ufa, reconstituted at Omsk under the Presidency of Admiral Koltchak, daily receives numerous adhesions not from among the Bolsheviki, but from among their adversaries, loyal friends of the Entente.

M. Franklin-Bouillon: We are not discussing that. You are giving us inaccurate information. (Sensation.)

The Minister for Foreign Affairs: The Russo-Czech Ural Front is being held to the East of Perm. A telegram which I received this morning brought me news that the Russian forces, supported by us, have taken Perm; they took eighteen thousand prisoners, sixty guns, and eleven thousand trucks. (Interruptions and exclamations on the extreme Left.)

A Russian army, commanded by General Denikin, has its headquarters

at Ekaterinodar; it is in touch with our Eastern army.

A Member of the extreme Left: Denikin is a Tsarist!

The Minister for Foreign Affairs: He was a friend of Korniloff, who was not a Tsarist, and whose want of success we regretted. The total number of his men amounts to one hundred thousand; he is provisioned by the Allies.

We have made a landing at Odessa, and the English are at Batum. (Interruptions on the extreme Left.)

M. Longuet: How many killed have you had at Odessa?

The Minister for Foreign Affairs: General Berthelot has reformed the Rumanian army; Rumanian territory has been evacuated by the Germans; a Bratianu Ministry, favorable to the Entente, has been constituted by King Ferdinand. Every favorable factor is organizing itself in South Russia with a view to the action which they may there have to take. (Interruptions on the extreme Left.)

A Member of the extreme Left: It is war beginning all over again.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs: This action is, in particular, defined by the instructions of the Premier to our Generals. The inter-Allied action,' M. Clemenceau wrote to them on December 13, 'has no offensive character. It aims at cutting off from the Bolsheviki access to the Ukraine, the Caucasus, and Eastern Russia (interruptions on the extreme Left), at constituting and at maintaining a defensive front to protect these districts. If an offensive effort becomes necessary to destroy Bolshevism, it ought to be made by Russian forces. It is a matter of importance that the Russians should clearly understand this necessity. Our help has as its sole aim to assure them of material superiority over the Bolsheviki,' (Applause from many parts of the House.)