Cologne, August 12. The Democratic Society of Cologne has 
submitted the following protest to the National Assembly: 


To the High National Assembly! 


The Democratic Society of Cologne, considering 


ie 


O9 NO 


that Germany, which is engaged in a struggle for freedom, 
does not desire to oppress other nationalities but to promote 
their efforts for freedom and independence; 


. that the liberation of Poland is a vital question for Germany; 
. that Poland has in fact been repeatedly robbed of its freedom 


and national independence by three despots; 


. that since 1792 all attacks upon Poland and all partitions of 


Poland have always been aimed by reaction against the freedom 
of the whole of Europe, and, on the other hand, whenever a 
liberation of the peoples took place there was insistence also on 
the restoration of Poland; 


. that even the Committee of Fifty, in the name of the German 


people, indignantly rejected any share in the outrage commit- 
ted against Poland and clearly proclaimed the duty of the 
German people to co-operate in the restoration of an indepen- 
dent Poland; 


. that after the March revolution even the King of Prussia, 


compelled by the force of public opinion, solemnly assented to 
the reorganisation of Posen; 


. that despite that the National Assembly in Frankfurt, which, it 


is true, arose from indirect elections, in its sitting of July 27, 
1848, voted for the incorporation of three-quarters of the 
Grand Duchy of Posen in the as yet non-existent German 
Empire and thereby incurred the guilt of a new partition of 


Appendices: 565 


Poland and the flouting of liberty in the same way as did the 
Vienna Congress and the German Federal Diet; 

8. that nevertheless the healthy part of the German people will not 
and cannot take any part in oppressing the Polish nation for the 
benefit of reaction and in the interests of a number of Prussian 
bureaucrats, landowners and hucksterers; 

resolves in its sitting today: 
to make a formal protest against the decision adopted by the 
German National Assembly on July 27, 1848, in regard to the 
Grand Duchy of Posen and herewith to lay before Germany, 
Poland and the whole of Europe its vigorous objections to this 
incorporation which is solely of advantage to the reactionary 
party in Prussia, Russia and Austria. 


On behalf of the Democratic Society, 
The Committee