| London, 23 March,
1871.
Dear Paul,
I
enclose
Seraillier
’s declaration in
the “
Courrier de
l’Europe
, 18 March, 1871”
—(this French paper is published at London) in regard to the
impudent mystification of the
Paris-Journal
of March 14
, of which you are probably aware.
The following is published
in the “
Times
” of
22
nd
March
1871 under the title
“The
International Association
: M.
Karl Marx asks us to contradict the statement contained in
a letter published by us in the 16
th
of
March, from
our
Paris correspondent
, that ‘Karl Marx has
written a letter to one of his principal
affiliés
in
Paris, stating that he is not satisfied with the attitude which the members of
that society have taken up in that city, that they violate the Statutes of the
Association
in
dabbling
in politics, that they disorganise labour instead of organising it etc.’ M.
Karl Marx says this
statement has evidently been taken
from the
Paris-Journal
of the 14
th
of March
, where also the publication in full of the
pretended letter is promised, and that
the
Paris-Journal
of the 19
th
of March contains a letter
dated London, February 28, 1871, purporting to be
signed by him,
which letter M. Marx declares is from
beginning to end an impudent forgery
.”
I come now to the second
trick of that dirty Parisian
react
x
(?)
n
x
(?)
reactionary
press. When we were informed of the pretended exclusion of the German
“
Internationals
” by the
Paris
“Internationals”
, we wrote to the “frères et amis” at Paris, who
replied that this story was nothing but an invention of the Paris press
scum.
Meanwhile, the
ne
ws
false news
| spread
like
wildfire through the London press which indulged in long
leaders upon that pleasant event proving at the same time the decomposition of
the
International
and
the incorrigible perversion of the Paris workmen.
In
to-days’
Times
(23 March, 1871.) the following declaration
of the
General Council
is published
:
“
The Anti-German Ligue of
Paris.
“
To the
Editor
of
the
Times.
Sir,
A statement has gone the round of the English press that the
Paris members of the
International Working Men’s
Association
had in so far joined the so-called Anti-German League
as to declare all Germans to be henceforth excluded from our association.
This statement is the very reverse of fact. Neither the Federal
Council of our association in Paris, nor any of the Paris sections represented
by that council, have ever passed any such resolution. The so-called Anti-German
League, as far as it exists at all, is the exclusive work of the upper and
middle classes; it was started by the Jockey Club, and kept up by the adhesions
of the Academy, of the Stock Exchange, of some bankers and manufacturers etc.
The working-classes have nothing whatever to do with it.
The object of these
calumnies
is evident. A short time before the outbreak of the late war the International
was made the general
scape-goat
for all untoward events. This is now repeated over again.
While the Swiss and Prussian press accuse it of having created the
late outrage upon Germans in Zürich
, French papers, such as the
Courrier de Lyon
, le
Courrier de la
Gironde
,
la Liberté
etc., tell of certain secret
meetings of Internationals having been held at Geneva and Bern, the Prussian
ambassador in the chair, in which meetings a plan was
concocted
to hand over Lyons to the united 
| Prussians and Internationals for the sake
of common plunder.
By order of the General Council of the
International Working Men’s Association
London, March 22.
J.
G. Eccarius
, General Secretary.”
____________________
I have to-day still so many
letters to write that I must shut up. Tell
Laura
that I was greatly delighted with
her letter
.
Yours
K. Marx.
Votre
lettre à
Jenny
vient
d’arriver.
Ce n’est pas
mon ardeur juvénile, comme vous le croyez, ce sont
des
manifestes
, publiés par le
Conseil Fédéral de Paris pendant la guerre
, et qui nous ont
[été]
communiqués
officiellement
, qui
faisaient croire le General Council dans la possibilité d’une telle bêtise
que
l’exclusion des Internationaux allemands
par les Intern. parisiens! J’ai aujourd’hui envoyé
au
Volksstaat
à Leipzig
(le journal de
Liebknecht
) et
au
Zukunft
à Berlin
(organe du Dr.
Jacoby
) une déclaration
sur les phantaisies du
Paris-Journal
et la soi-disant
exclusion des
Internationaux
Allemands par
les Parisiens, qui
xxxx xxxxx xx xxxxxx
(?)
a fait beaucoup de
bruit dans la «bonne presse» allemande. J’ai fini cette déclaration par ces
mots:
«
Xx
(?)
C’est dans la nature des choses que les grands
dignitaires et les classes dominantes de la vieille société, qui ne
xxxxxx xxxxxx
(?)
sauraient
perpétuer leur pouvoir et l’exploitation des masses productives que
par le moyen des antagonismes et des luttes
x
(?)
nationaux
, traitent l’
Association Internationale des
Travailleurs
comme l’ennemi commun.».