[London,] 28 May 1872178 

My dear Friend, 
Enclosed is a statement by the General Council against Vésinier 
2 Marx intended to resign from the General Council of the International after 

the Hague Congress. -> But moderation in all things (Horace, Satires, I, 
1). - © Hermann Lopatin - 4 A. Williams, Marx’s pseudonym 

and Co.* for the Brussels L’Internationale. The same thing has been 
sent to the Liberté, 

1) because it needs publicity, 2) because Mr Steens has suppressed 
the General Council’s reply to the British Parliament which was 
sent to him. 

I have read the report on the Belgian Congress‘ in the 
L’Internationale.** How is it that the Flemish are not included 
among the delegates? Generally speaking, according to the 
information received here by the French from their compatriots, it 
would not seem that the International has made much headway in 
Belgium after the events of the Commune. 

For my part I should be ready to accept the Hins draft (with 
modifications of detail), not because I think it is good, but because 
it is always better to make certain experiments than to lull oneself 
with illusions. 

It is very characteristic of the Alliance’s'° tactics: in Spain, where 
it is strongly organised although it has lost the support of the 
Spanish Federal Council, it attacked at the Barcelona Council all 
elements of organisation, the Federal Council, etc., as well as the 
General Council. In Belgium, where ‘prejudices’ have to be taken 
into account, it has been proposed that the General Council be 
abolished with its functions being transferred to the Federal 
Councils (this was opposed at Barcelona) and even enlarged. 

I can hardly wait for the next Congress. It will be the end of my 
slavery. After that I shall become a free man again; I shall accept 
no administrative functions any more, either for the General 
Council or for the British Federal Council. 

Yours as ever, 
Karl Marx