PRESSENSÉ (Francis Charles Dehault de), French journalist an - Lot 36

PRESSENSÉ (Francis Charles Dehault de), French journalist and politician, Socialist deputy, Dreyfusard, president of the League for Human Rights (1853–1914). Signed autograph manuscript titled “France, Russia, Tsarism.” 12 pp., in-8. Errata and corrections. Adhesive tape on the left margin of the pages, with no impact on the text. A scathing critique of Foreign Minister Delcassé’s pro-Russian policy at the time of the 1905 Russian Revolution and the massacre of workers in St. Petersburg. “There was… astonishment in the Chamber, then indignation, when we heard the head of our foreign affairs department launch into a mad and abominable defense of the Tsar’s crimes… The situation reached a breaking point when Mr. Delcassé—more tsarist than a minister of the Tsar—dared… to act as an advocate… for an attack on the rights of humanity. What’s this! Witte (the Russian Prime Minister)… does not dare to defend his own work: he remains silent, he waits, ready to shift the blame for the massacre onto the clique of grand dukes… Everyone… condemns the mixture of cowardice and cruelty that dictated Nicholas II’s conduct… There is something broken—irreparably broken—in the Franco-Tsarist alliance… Today, the all-too-deserved disasters of a war (the war against Japan)—foolishly undertaken and foolishly waged—have begun to open the eyes of the naive supporters of a fantasy version of Russia. He criticizes the tsar for trying to deceive public opinion. “May fate decree that Russia not have to wait too long for its August 10! Until then, it would be a monstrous attack against the Republic and against the Revolution from which it was born if our leaders had the audacity to encourage and support the autocrat in his sacrilegious struggle….”