No. 11.

Mr. Jones to Mr. Fish.

No. 76.]

Sir: I have the honor to inclose herewith a circular of Count Bismarck, of the 10th October, in regard to the demand of the members of the diplomatic corps remaining in Paris for permission to continue their correspondence with their governments, which, I believe, has not been made public until now.

J. R. JONES.

[Untitled]

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 [Page 57] 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.,

BISMARCK.