MARX TO LEO FRANKEL AND LOUIS EUGENE VARLIN ”” 

[Draft] [London,] 13 May 1871 

Dear Citizens Frankel and Varlin, 

I have had a number of interviews with the bearer.* 

Might it not be useful if all papers likely to compromise the 
riffraff of Versailles were kept in a safe place?” A precaution of 
this kind could never do any harm. 

They have written to me from Bordeaux to say that four 
Internationalists have been elected at the last municipal elec- 

a presumably N. Eilau - » See K. Marx, The Civil War in France (First Draft). ‘The 
Government of Defence’. 

tions.”* The provinces are beginning to ferment. Unfortunately 
their action is localised and ‘pacific’. 

I have written hundreds of letters on behalf of your cause to all 
the corners of the earth where we have branches. The working 
class was, incidentally, pro-Commune since the latter’s incep- 
tion. 

Even the bourgeois papers in this country have departed from 
their earlier ferocity. From time to time I contrive to slip a 
favourable paragraph into them.” 

I believe that the Commune wastes too much time over trifles 
and personal squabbles. One can see that there are influences at 
work other than those of the working men. None of this would 
matter if you had time enough to make up for lost time. 

It is very necessary to do quickly what you intend to do outside 
Paris, in England or elsewhere. The Prussians won’t hand over the 
forts to the Versailles people, but after the definitive conclusion of 
peace (26 May*”) they will allow the government to invest Paris 
with its gendarmes. Since Thiers & Co. had, as you know, 
stipulated a handsome bribe in their treaty concluded by 
Pouyer-Quertier,””” they refused to accept Bismarck’s offer of 
assistance by German bankers. Had they done so, they would have 
forfeited their bribe. Since the prior condition for the accomplish- 
ment of their treaty was the conquest of Paris, they asked 
Bismarck to delay payment of the first instalment until the 
occupation of Paris. Bismarck accepted this condition. Prussia, 
being herself in urgent need of that money, will therefore provide 
the Versailles people with every possible facility to hasten the 
occupation of Paris. So be on your guard!