aving shattered
Prussian militarism, so as to be able to rebuild on a basis of justice
a regenerated Europe." And Mr. Paul Deschanel, the President of the
Chamber, continued: "The French are not only defending their soil,
their homes, the tombs of their ancestors, their sacred memories,
their ideal works of art and faith and all the graceful, just, and
beautiful things their genius has lavished forth: they are defending,
too, the respect of treaties, the independence of Europe, and human
freedom. We want to know if all the effort of conscience during
centuries will lead to its slavery, if millions of men are to be
taken, given up, herded at the other side of a frontier and condemned
to fight for their conquerors and masters against their country, their
families, and their brothers.... The world wishes to live at last,
Europe to breathe, and the nations mean to dispose freely of
themselves."
These engagements will be kept. But they will have been kept only when
Alsace-Lorraine--the Belgium of 1871, as Rabbi Stephen Wise has called
it--has been returned to France. Then, and only then, will there be
real peace. Then, and only then, will the "Testament" of Paul
Deroulede have been executed:
When our war victorious is o'er,
And our country has won back its rank,
Then with the evils war brings in its train
Will disappear the hatred the conqueror trails.
Then our great France, full of love without spite
Sowing fresh springing-corn 'neath her new-born laurels,
Will welcome Work, father of Fortune,
And sing Peace, mother of lengthy deeds.
Then will come Peace, calm, serene, and awful,
Crushing down arms, but upholding intellect;
For we shall stand out as just-hearted conquerors,
Only taking back what was robbed from us.
And our nation, weary of mourning,
Will soothe the living while praising the dead,
And nevermore will we hear the name of battle
And our children shall learn to unlearn hate.
Just as France will not accept peace without restitution, she will not
accept peace without reparation.
Germany can never make reparation for all the ruin, all the
destruction, all the sacrilege she has wrought. There can be no
reparation for the Cathedral of Rheims, for the Hotel de Ville at
Arras, for the deaths of thousands of innocent beings, for the
slaughter of women and children.
But there can be reparation for the damage done to mach
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