A new daily newspaper will be published in Cologne from the first 
of June; it will be called Neue Rheinische Zeitung and will be edited by 
Herr Karl Marx. This paper will advocate in these latitudes the same 
democratic principles that L’Alba represents in Italy. There can 
therefore be no doubt about the line we shall take on the questions 
now pending between Italy and Austria. We shall defend the cause 
of Italian independence, we shall fight to the death Austrian 
despotism in Italy as in Germany and Poland. We extend a fraternal 
hand to the Italian people and want to prove to them that the 
German nation entirely repudiates the policy of oppression which in 
your country is carried through by the same men who in our country 
too have always combated freedom. We shall do our utmost to 
promofe the union of, and good understanding between, two great 
and free nations which have, until now, been led to believe by a 
nefarious system of government that they were each other’s enemy. 
We shall therefore demand the immediate withdrawal from Italy of 
the brutal Austrian soldiery, and that the Italian people be placed in 
a position to express its sovereign will in the question of the form of 
government which it wants to choose. 

In order to enable us to follow Italian affairs, and in order to give 
you the opportunity of judging the sincerity of our promises, we 
suggest an exchange of papers. Thus we propose to send you the 
Neue Rheinische Zeitung every day and to receive from you L’Alba 
regularly. We hope that you will accept this proposal and ask you to 
start sending us L’Alba as soon as possible so that already in our first 
issues we can make use of it. 


12 . Karl Marx 


If you wish to send us other information as well we should be 
pleased to receive it, and assure you that anything likely to serve the 
cause of democracy in any country will be given our most careful 
consideration. 

Fraternal greetings. 


For the editorial board of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung 
Dr. Karl Marx, Editor