The Pastor Mr. S. Descombaz, President of the Evangelical Alliznce of Lyons to Granville Leveson-Gower, January 26, 1871
Lord Lyons to Earl Granville
My Lord: I perceive that observations have been made in both houses of Parliament on the fact of my having left Paris in the month of September last, and on the steps which I took to provide for the protection of British subjects there during my absence.
I do not think it necessary to say much here on the first point. I was advised to remove to Tours by M. Jules Favre, and pressed to accompany them to that place by the representatives of the great powers of Europe. I traveled to Tours with the representatives of Austria, Italy, Russia, and Turkey, and we were followed immediately by the Spanish charge d’affaires, and afterward by the representatives of other powers. In fact, the only chief of a diplomatic mission from any great power who staid at Paris was Mr. Washburne, the United States minister. As representing a nation which punctiliously abstains from taking part in the political affairs of Europe, Mr. Washburne had not the same reasons as representatives of European powers for removing to a place at which he could serve as a means of communication between his Government and the government of France; and as being charged with the protection of North German subjects in France, he was allowed by the German military authorities facilities for correspondence during the siege which were denied to the representatives of other governments. I conceded, at the time, that it was my duty neither to reject the advice of the French minister for foreign affairs, nor to separate myself from my principal colleagues, and I thought it would be, on all accounts, inexpedient for me to allow myself to be shut up in Paris and to be deprived of all speedy and satisfactory means of communicating with your lordship. My subsequent experience has, I confess, confirmed me in these opinions. On the day after I left Paris all communication by road with that place was intercepted, and on the following day the last telegraph wire was cut. The diplomatists who were left in the besieged city were refused by the German authorities positively all facilities for corresponding with their governments otherwise than by letters left open for the inspection of those authorities. My having resided at the seat of the delegation of the government at Tours, and having followed them to Bordeaux, have been accepted by the French as manifest proofs of the desire of Her Majesty’s government to maintain intimate and friendly relations with them, while my doing so has afforded Her Majesty’s government the readiest and most effectual means of maintaining such relations in fact.
On the question of the provision made by me for the protection of British subjects when I myself left Paris, it may, perhaps, be desirable that I should make some explanation in addition to the reports which I addressed to your lordship at the time. The objections made against the course I took appear to resolve themselves into a complaint that I did not leave Mr. Atlee, the consul, at Paris, instead of or in addition to Mr. Wodehouse, one of the secretaries of the embassy.
What happened was this: When it became apparent that an attack upon Paris was imminent I naturally became desirous of reducing the number of members of the embassy, whom I kept with me there, to the lowest point compatible with the performance of the work. Much of the ordinary business, and in particular the not inconsiderable part of it caused by the passage of Queen’s messengers, and the necessity of transmitting without delay dispatches brought by them, was sure to be suspended by the siege; consequently, I thought that the services of two of the members of the chancery might be temporarily dispensed with. It so happened that two of these had wives and families, while the rest were unmarried. I therefore selected, as most proper to send away, the two married men, of whom Mr. Atlee was one.
As your lordship is aware, although Mr. Atlee holds a commission as consul, his principal functions are those of attaché librarian and registrar to the embassy. In ordinary times there are some technical advantages in having a person with the character of consul in immediate connection with the embassy, among which may be reckoned his collecting, on account of Her Majesty’s government, consular fees which considerably exceed in amount the consular salary allowances.
Under the circumstances, however, under which my departure took place, there were certainly no special functions which could be better discharged by a consul than by a secretary of the embassy. I had no power to take out of the hands of the committee of the British charitable fund the management of the charitable contributions for the relief of distressed British subjects. I had most certainly no wish to do so. On the contrary, I had the fullest confidence in the members of that committee, whom the most generous motives induced to stay in Paris; and the noble and unwearied devotion with which they have discharged the benevolent duties they undertook have more than justified the high opinion I had formed of them. In fact, the object which rendered the presence of a member of the embassy in Paris desirable was that he should communicate officially with the French government, and exercise an influence with them on behalf of Her Majesty’s subjects; and it appeared to me that I should better provide for the attainment of this object by presenting a secretary to the minister for foreign affairs as representative of the embassy than by simply leaving a consul in the town. I accordingly presented Mr. Wodehouse to M. Jules Favre in that capacity. In fact, while Mr. Wodehouse could perfectly well perform all the functions that could be discharged by a consul, he was in a much better position than a consul could have been for communicating efficiently with the minister for foreign affairs or other French authorities.
I was naturally anxious not to expose any of Mer Majesty’s servants unnecessarily, and I conceived that, by stationing Mr. Wodehouse and General Claremont, the military attaché at Paris, I made the best provision in my power for the protection of the British subjects who remained there.
I left with Mr. Wodehouse orders to come away from Paris himself if the place should be threatened with immediate bombardment; and in that case to do his utmost to obtain a safe passage out for all British subjects. I considered that in such a contingency the protection of any of our countrymen who might still remain could not be transferred to better hands than to those of General Claremont, who, from his intimacy with General Trochu and his large acquaintance among French military men and well-known influence with them, would have peculiar means of befriending and assisting British subjects if actual danger from military operations should be imminent.
As the minister of marine was established at Tours, and as it was manifest that no naval intelligence could be attainable during the seige, I should have brought Captain Hore, the naval attaché, away with me if he had not been too ill to travel.
The orders I left with him were, as your lordship is aware, to rejoin me as soon as his health should admit of his doing so.
Since I left Paris I have had no other active duty to perform in the matter than to endeavor to forward orders from your lordship to Mr. Wodehouse. But I feel confident that your lordship will consider that my whole correspondence with you, both before and since I left Paris, shows that I have been in constant anxiety respecting the British subjects there, and earnestly desirous that every effort should be made for their practicable relief.
I subjoin a list of some of the principal dispatches I have had the honor to address to your lordship on the subject.
I have, &c.,