[Draft] 
{London, around 26 April 1871] 

Dear Citizen! '” 

I have been authorised by the General Council to issue a most 
emphatic denial on its behalf of the foul slander being spread by 
Citizen F. Pyat against Serraillier.* Pyat’s fury springs from one 
single source: his hatred for the International. Through the so-called 
French Section in London,” which has been expelled by the 
General Council, and which has been infiltrated by police spies, 
one-time imperial guardsmen and touts, Pyat has been trying to 
pose before the world as the secret leader of our Association, to 
which he does not belong, and to make us responsible for his 
absurd manifestations in London and his compromising indiscre- 
tions in Paris, which, by the way, Citizen Tridon has already flayed 
during his stay in Brussels.” That is why the General Council was 
forced to disown this dirty schemer publicly.” Hence his furies 
against Dupont and Serraillier. When Serraillier threatened to 
summon the vile toadies of Pyat in the so-called French Section 
before an English court to answer for the slander Pyat keeps 
spreading in Paris, the French Section itself disowned them and 
branded them as slanderers. 

One of these days, the General Council is to issue an Address on 
the Commune.’ It has put off this manifesto up to now, because 
it was expecting the Paris Section from day to day to supply it with 
precise information. In vain! Not a word! The Council could not 
afford to wait any longer because the English workers have been 
eagerly awaiting its explanation. 

Meanwhile, time has not been wasted. The true character of this 
grand Paris revolution has been explained to workers everywhere 
in letters from various secretaries to sections on the Continent and 
in the United States. 

Since Serraillier’s political life has given no occasion for slander,“ 
it was his private life that was attacked. Had Pyat’s private life 
been as clean as Serraillier’s, he would not have had to submit 

4 Crossed out in the original: ‘representative of the Council’. - b See K. Marx, 
‘Resolution of the Genera! Council on Félix Pyat’s Provocative Behaviour’. - © Crossed 
out in the original: ‘even to Pyat, this “honest” fellow whose courage is proverbial’. 

here, in London, to affronts which it takes blood to wash 
away..." 

I have had a letter and a visit from a certain citizen over the 
despatch of you know what. The mistake they made in Paris was 
not to hand over the papers required? to facilitate the operations. 
You should now have some three per cent securities which 
circulate freely and which can be sold at the current rate. The 
citizen will give you any other necessary explanations. 

He can be quite safely entrusted with the document.