London, 17 November 1871 
1 Maitland Park Road, 
Haverstock Hill 

Dear Liebknecht, 

1. Letter to follow concerning the printing of the Rules,’ 
etc. 

2. Your comments on my proposals concerning Berlin rest on a 
complete misunderstanding. I declared my opposition to unpro- 
voked demonstrations, but pointed to ‘provocations’, and immi- 
nent ones at that, which would provide demonstrations with a 
background and with prospects of success.” 

3. First Bebel and yourself do not come to the Conference, and 
take no steps to ensure that other delegates turn up. Then you 
print a report from Boruttau in which, acting perhaps as an 
unconscious agent of the Geneva conspiracy against the General 
Council, he rebukes the latter for failing to invite delegates from 
Germany.“ The construction already being put upon this in 
Geneva by the Bakuninists and the whole host of conspiratorial 

aK. Marx, General Rules and Administrative Regulations of the Internatio- 
nal Working Men's Association. - > See this volume, p. 237. - © [K.] Boruttau, ‘Sozia- 
lismus und Kommunismus’, Der Volksstaat, Nos. 88 and 89, i and 4 November 
1871. 

hangers-on among the émigrés, is that Marx has lost his influence 
even in Germany! 

4. You may rest assured that I am better informed than you 
about the intrigues within the International. So when I write to 
you that letters from Boruttau with any bearing at all on the 
International (including the Manifesto already announced, which 
the aforesaid Boruttau has sent you) should not be printed in the 
Volksstaat, you have simply to make up your mind whether you 
wish to act against us or with us. If the latter is the case, then my 
instructions, which are based on a thorough knowledge of the 
circumstances, should be followed to the letter. 

5. Since we are most dissatisfied here with the way in which the 
affairs of the International have been conducted hitherto, it is my 
duty, in accordance with the instructions of the General Council, 
to make direct contact with the main centres in Germany. I have 
already made a start on this.* 

6. We are so overwhelmed with International work here that 
Engels and myself have had no time up to now to write a Preface 
for the Communist Manifesto. At all events we shall not write one 
simply in order to trigger off a polemic with Mr Boruttau in the 
Volksstaat. 

Your 
K. M.