No. 11.
[Untitled]
Versailles,
October 10, 1870.
Sir: I have had the honor to receive the
letter of the 6th October, by which the members of the diplomatic
corps who still reside in Paris wished to inform me that it would be
impossible for them to entertain official relations with their
governments, if them. When the refusal of an armistice by the French
government rendered the continuation of the siege of Paris
inevitable, the government of the King, at his own instance,
notified the agents of the neutral powers accredited to Berlin, by a
circular note of the 26th September, from the secretary of state,
Mr. Von Thiele, that liberty of relation with Paris existed only so
far as permitted by military events.
The same day I received, at Ferrières, the communication of the
minister of foreign affairs of the government of the national
defense, informing me of the desire expressed by the diplomatic
corps to send a courier each week with the dispatches for their
governments. I did not hesitate, in accordance with the rules
established by international law, to give the answer dictated to me
by the exigencies of the military situation. It has seemed proper to
the men actually in power to establish the seat of their government
in the interior of the fortifications of Paris, and to choose this
city and its environs for the scene of war. If the members of the
diplomatic corps accredited to the preceding government have decided
to share, with the government of national defense, in conveniences
inseparable from a stay in a besieged fortress, the responsibility
for it does not rest with the government of the King.
Whatever may be our confidence that the subscribers to the letter of
the 6th October will submit personally, in the communications
addressed to their governments, to the obligations which their
presence in a strongly besieged place may impose on diplomatic
agents, in accordance with the rules of war, we must not the less
take into consideration the fact that the importance of certain
facts in a military point of view might escape them. It is evident,
beside, that they could not offer to us the same guarantee for the
messengers whom they are to employ, and whom we shall be obliged to
allow to pass our lines. A state of things has been produced in
Paris no analogous precedent to which is offered by modern history,
viewed from the standpoint of international law.
A government at war with a power which has not yet recognized it, is
shut up in a besieged fortress, and sees itself surrounded by a
party of diplomatists, who had been accredited to a government for
which the government of the national defense has been substituted.
In presence of so irregular a situation, it will be difficult to
establish, on the basis of the law of nations, rules which would be
incontestable from all points of view.
I believe myself entitled to hope that your excellency will
comprehend the justice of these observations, and will appreciate
the considerations which, to my lively regret, prevent me from
giving assent to the desire expressed in your letter of the 6th
October. Beside, if the subscribers cannot admit the justice of this
denial, the governments which they have represented at Paris, and
whom I shall, without delay, make
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acquainted with the correspondence exchanged
between us, will put themselves in communication with the government
of the King, in order to examine the questions of the laws of
nations, which are attached to the abnormal condition which events
and the measures of the government of the national defense have
created in Paris.
I have the honor, &c.,