de la Tour D’auvergne to M. Berthemy, September 2, 1870

The minister of foreign affairs to the minister of France at Washington.

Sir: The Prussian official journal, and all the German papers which obey the same inspirations, have sought to excite public opinion against us on account of the measures which the subjects of Prussia and its allies have been the object in France since the commencement of the war.

It has been openly asserted, and every effort is made to induce the belief, that the government of the Emperor, after having first tolerated the presence of citizens of the enemy’s country, took measures for their general expulsion. This assertion is absolutely at variance with the truth, and of this the cabinet of Berlin cannot be ignorant.

When the ministry of the 10th of August was called to power, it was obliged, by reason of the circumstances, to examine the situation of the Germans in France. It did so, regarding the interest of the country and the personal security of these foreigners at the same time, for it was obliged to consider the annoying consequences of the great excitement which is caused in France by excesses of all kinds committed in the rural districts against an unoffending population, and a system of espionage without precedent in the annals of war.

The government did not, however, adopt a general measure of expulsion, however legitimate it would have been after the unworthy treatment of which our citizens, and even some French consular agents, have been the victims in Germany. It confined itself to favoring the removal of all those who desired to return to their own country. To this effect the minister of the interior exempted them from the formality of safe conducts for leaving the country, and from that of the French visa previously required for their passports. The mass of the German residents, so numerous throughout the territory of the empire, was in no wise affected.

Friendly explanations were given on this subject by the minister of the interior and myself to the ministers of America and Switzerland, as well as to the chargé d’affaires of Russia, to which functionaries the German governments had confided the protection of their citizens in France. In fact, the majority of these foreigners did not leave the territory of the empire. Everyone knows with what moderation the orders of the French government were enforced, and no one can truthfully maintain, as is done by the Berlin journals, that the Emperor’s government has shown itself pitiless and cruel toward the German residents.

Quite recently, in view of the march of the Prussian army on Paris, General Trochu, by virtue of the powers intrusted to him, promulgated an order obliging every subject of the enemy to leave Paris and the department of the Seine in the space of three days, and to leave France or to retire to one of the departments situated beyond the Loire.

This measure was dictated by considerations of public necessity, upon which I have no need to insist, and in my previous interviews with the ministers of the United States and Switzerland, as well as with the chargé d’affaires of Russia, I had taken care to reserve with regard to this the full and entire liberty of appreciation of the government. The presence of several thousands of Germans in Paris during the operations of a siege would have been a source of peril to themselves as well as of danger to the defense, and every one understood that this order, however painful it was to those affected by it, still bore the impress of that generous sentiment by which the French people are habitually actuated in their conduct, even toward an enemy, in the midst of the heat of a struggle; for their patriotism will never cause them to forget the laws of humanity. The government, moreover, in the order of August 28 stopped short of what it might legitimately have done, since it confined itself to removing the Germans from the capital, still allowing them to remain in the departments situated beyond the Loire, and this restriction, placed by ourselves upon the exercise of our right, is a new and irrecusable evidence of the falsity of the allegation of the Prussian official journal, according to which, since the 10th of August, all Germans settled in France have been included in a measure of expulsion. I beg you to point out the falseness of these assertions to the Cabinet at Washington, and in order to reduce them to their just value it will be sufficient for you to oppose to them our acts.

Receive, sir, &c.,