The contract which annexed us to Germany is null and void. A
contract is only valid when the two contractants had an
entire freedom to sign it. France was not free when she
signed such a contract. Therefore our electors want us to
say that we consider ourselves as not bound by such a
treaty, and they want us to affirm once more our right of
disposing of ourselves.
I beg to call the attention of the reader to two sentences of this
protestation:
"Europe cannot allow a people to be seized like a flock of sheep,"
wrote the deputies of 1871. "People are not mere goods which may be
sold or with which you may trade," proclaimed the deputies of 1874.
Now you will find, nearly word for word, the same thought expressed
in the message of President Wilson to Congress, when he wrote: "No
right exists anywhere to hand peoples about from sovereignty to
sovereignty as if they were property."
That right does not exist, and it is because that right was
outrageously violated in 1871 that France wants Alsace-Lorraine to
come back to her. It is because, in 1871, Right has been wronged that
today Right must be reinstated.
Some people have spoken of a referendum. Why a referendum? Was there
any referendum in 1871? And how could there be a referendum? How could
you include in this referendum the hundreds of thousands of Alsatians
who have fled from German domination? How could you exclude from this
referendum the hundreds of thousands of Germans who have come to
Alsace?
The referendum was rendered by Mulhouse in 1798.
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