Will that town be
obliged to vote again? And how many times will it be obliged to vote
for France? The referendum was rendered by the whole of Alsace and
Lorraine in 1871 and 1874, by their elected deputies, when they
unanimously protested against the German annexation.
It was rendered twenty years ago by the census which was taken by the
Germans themselves in Alsace. According to that census, in 1895,
notwithstanding the fact that the teaching of French was prohibited in
the public schools, there were 160,000 people in Alsace speaking
French. And five years later, in 1900, according to another census
there were 200,000 people in Alsace speaking French. And of these
200,000 people, there were more than 52,000 children.
The referendum was also rendered by Alsatians who, before this war,
engaged themselves in the French Army, and became officers. According
to the official statistics of the French War Department, there were in
1914 in the French Army 20 generals, 145 superior officers, and 400
ordinary officers of Alsatian origin. On the other side, in the German
Army in 1914, there were four officers of Alsatian origin.
And finally the referendum was rendered only one year before the
present war, in 1913, when Herr von Jagow, then Prefect of Police in
Berlin, made the following extraordinary declaration: "We Germans are
obliged in Alsace to behave ourselves as if we were in an enemy's
country.
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