[London,] 23 September 1870 

Dear Oswald, 

Herewith the Volksstaat (Nos. 72-76) and the Volkswille (No. 34), 
both of which I must have back by Monday nexr.* 

I only receive occasional copies of the Zukunft. The copies that 
Engels has have not yet been unpacked, any more than the rest of 
the furniture he has just brought down from Manchester.” This 
is also the reason why I cannot yet accept your kind invitation. I 
must first get Engels anp his Famity settled in. 

I am toto ovelo” opposed to your neutralisation plan '*° and have 
already expressed my views to this effect in detail after hearing 
about the plan from another direction. 

If people were seriously concerned about the military security of 
Germany, it would meet the case exactly if the fortresses of Metz 
and Strasbourg were to be razed to the ground. 

Bismarck knows this. He also knows that on this side neutralisa- 
tion can achieve no more and that it would contribute much less, in 
fact nothing, towards the reconciliation with France that will again 
become necessary in the future. It is one of those measures that 
ruin everything and settle nothing. 

Consider further that the entire opposition in Germany is only a 
real power, a power that grows as a result of persecution by the 
government, because and insofar as it makes a strong stand on 
principle. 

This is appreciated not only by the workers but even by people 
like Jacoby, people like Ludwig Simon of Trier and even Jakob 
Venedey! Once such a motley opposition starts playing around 
with diplomacy, all is lost. It would gain nothing at all through 
such diplomacy but on the contrary, by involving itself with C....,° 
it would lose the right to declare: Annex, iF you please. We declare 
these annexations non avenues"! 

Du reste, Jules Favre, and not Thiers, is the man of the moment. 
Razing the fortresses was first proposed in the official Journal de 

a 26 September - > quite definitely -¢ Text illegible in source. - 4 inva- 
lid - © Moreover 

Pétersbourg'*” and was taken up at once by the French Provisional 

Government. If anything is powerful enough to break the hold of 
the military canaille on the handsome William * it is such hints from 
Petersburg. 

Yours, 
K. M.