[Draft] 

[London, about 26 February 1884] 

What I wrote and told you about Malon ?° are the simple facts of 
which I have been given proof and which are in no way altered by 
Paris gossip. Malon did indeed quit the Peace Congress '*° in com- 
pany with Bakunin and 15 others, and he was a co-founder of the sec- 
ret Alliance.?° The document of March 1870 has actually been in 
my possession !8!; what the lies are that Malon has recently been 
concocting about the International are of no interest to me; I am un- 
likely so much as to look at them. In my view the fact that he is self- 
taught does not give him the right to falsify history. If he is fit to play 
a leading role among the French, I am sorry for the French prole- 
tariat. 

As regards your propagation of international relations,* 

1) the aims are so vague that I really cannot give up any time on 
the strength of your general prospects; 

2) virtually all the people you mention are unknown to me (the 
only one I know at all well is precisely the one you fail to name). 
But one cannot be active in the international movement for 40 years 
without having everywhere old friends and allies to whom one is poli- 
tically and morally committed. I should therefore first have to obtain 
information from them about many of your people and about the at- 
titude of one side to the other. I cannot very well do that, however, 
without giving some inkling of your scheme; 

3) but I cannot possibly embark on an alliance without having the 
least idea of where and into what further associations it will lead me. 
Some kind of central committee would presumably be set up in Paris, 
which would decide on the admission of new members and on possi- 

* See this volume, p. 97. 

ble action, and it might so happen that I found myself in the same as- 
sociation as people whom I should be compelled to oppose outright or 
that I became responsible for an action I disapproved of. That is an 
eventuality I cannot expose myself to at all. 

Do not, however, let this deter you. If you are able to achieve 
something worthwhile, it will please me nonetheless. I am grateful to 
you for your confidence and remain, etc.