circular., April 25, 1877

circular.

Monsieur: In presence of the complications of which the East is becoming the theater, I feel bound to remind you of the order of ideas in which we have acted for the purpose of preventing them, as well as the attitude we purpose to assume in this serious conjuncture.

I shall not again place under your eyes the vicissitudes of a conflict which has been going on for nearly two years, and which has not ceased, during all that time, to keep the governments on the watch. Desirous of preserving to Europe the benefits of peace, we straightforwardly lent our support to every effort to safeguard it or re-establish it. We were solicited to do so by the Government of the Porte, which, from the first, appealed to the good offices of the powers, and by the Cabinet of St. Petersburg, which, shortly after, on the questions raised by the insurrections of the Balkans, induced the action of the whole European concert.

In mixing ourselves up in the negotiations which have taken place since that moment, we had at heart to aid in the work which had for object to find a means of conciliation between the Porte and its Christian subjects, and to strengthen the accord of the powers between themselves. The difficulties certainly were numerous; but after having forseen that, if the Herzegovinian insurrection was not promptly appeased, it would speedily extend and disturb the continental tranquillity; we could not allow ourselves to be discouraged in the accomplishment of that task, common to all the governments, and which consisted in preparing and maintaining their union.

When the cabinets signed, after long deliberation, the protocol of the 31st March, they believed that they were approaching the end of their patient efforts. We therefore learned with regret that the advisers of the Sultan declined that compromise, which, ‘however, provided for Turkey an honorable means of pacifically solving the difficulties in the midst of which she was struggling.

Immediately after the conference at Constantinople the Porte declared that it was in accord with the European plenipotentiaries on all the points of their programme except two. In its circular of the 25th January, 1877, it trusted that so restricted a dissension, would not have for result to alienate from it the sympathies and friendship of Europe, and it thus indicated in an indirect way the opportunity of ulterior deliberations which would at last remove all the obstacles to a complete understanding.

The London protocol seemed calculated to realize that desire, for the text, to which we gave our assent, reduced the substance of the demands and the advice of Europe to the declarations made by the delegates of Turkey before the conference at Constantinople, and to the interior measures more recently decreed by the Sultan.

Nevertheless, a contrary interpretation prevailed at Constantinople, and it precipitated the extreme resolutions which have just closed the road of diplomatic action, in the sense in which it has been exercised during two years.

After so many efforts to avoid that dénoûment, we have no more to do than to declare our fixed determination to remain strangers to the complications which may be the result.

Be pleased, then, to declare very plainly the policy of France; it is the most absolute neutrality, guaranteed by the most scrupulous abstention. The unanimous sentiment of the country and its representatives, our distance from the theater of the struggle, and, finally, the nature of our essential interests, all contribute to impose that attitude upon us, and we should only modify it the day when fresh circumstances would permit the common action of Europe to prepare and facilitate the return of peace.

Accept, &c.,