Page:Great Speeches of the War.djvu/263

 M. ARISTIDE BRIAND

[Speech of the Minister of Justice to the Members of the French Senate, December 22, 1914.]


 * —The communication I have to make to you is not the usual speech by which a newly-formed Government outlines its policy. There is—at this moment—but one policy: war, pitiless war, until Europe is free, and its freedom secured by a victorious peace. [Cheers.] That is the cry that burst from all hearts when on August 4 there sprang up, as was so well expressed by the President of the Republic, "a sacred union of all parties which in the pages of history will redound to the honour of our country." That is the cry that all Frenchmen repeat, after having brushed aside the dissensions which have often made us very furious with each other, and which a blinded enemy mistook for irretrievable divisions. It is the cry which rises from the glorious trenches into which France has flung all her youth and all her strength. This overwhelming torrent of national loyalty has somewhat troubled Germany's dream of victory. At the outset of the conflict, she ignored justice, she appealed to might, she scorned treaties, and in order to violate the neutrality of Belgium and to invade France, she simply invoked the law of self-interest. Later on her Government realized that it must reckon with the world's opinion, and it has recently attempted to set itself right by casting on the Allies the responsibility of the war. But in spite of all the ponderous falsehoods which deceive no one, truth has prevailed. [Hear, hear, prolonged cheering.]

All the documents published by the nations concerned, and as recently as yesterday at Rome the inspiring speech of one of the most illustrious sons of noble Italy, witness to the long-agreed-upon determination of our enemies to bring about a state of war. If needs be, one of these documents alone would suffice to enlighten the world: when on July 31, 1914, at the suggestion of the English Government all the nations concerned were entreated to suspend military preparations 229