AT LE PERREUX 

London, 12 March 1889 

My dear Lafargue, 

The Possibilists have behaved just as they should—both as regards 
themselves and as regards us.>”8 I was afraid they would accept—with 
reservations which, though apparently insignificant, would have been 
enough to bedevil the whole issue. Fortunately they appear to be too 

4 Katharina Sorge 

much committed to the course already embarked upon—the financial 
exploitation of their position on the Municipal Council. This time they 
have dealt themselves the coup de grace. 

As for the Municipal Council’s 50,000 frs, they will probably get 
them, you cannot prevent it. Let them use the money for their 
congress—what does it matter? Not all the money in the coffers of the 
Municipal Council of Paris would suffice to manufacture a socialist 
congress, except as a joke.?”? 

The Germans have made concessions enough and are unlikely to 
make any more. The Dutch have been subjected to direct attack by the 
Possibilists, the Swiss and the Danes are following the German lead and 
the Belgians are divided, for while the Brussels people are, as you say, 
Possibilists at heart, the Flemings are very much better, and all that is 
wanted is to extricate them from the Brussels sphere of influence. Up till 
now they have left their foreign policy entirely in the hands of the 
Brussels people, but this time we may well see a change. 

It is a great misfortune that you should be without a paper at this vital 
juncture. M. Roques is an idiot and is simply throwing his money down 
the drain. The present editors will cost him ten times the 35 frs a day on 
account of which he has let go the only editors who might have made a 
success of his paper. But that does not alter the fact that this business 
has happened at the most inopportune moment. 

If you have invited the League”! to the conference without also invit- 
ing the Federation, as I can only conclude from your letter, it was a 
mistake on your part. Either both should have been invited, or both 
should have been left out. In the first place, the Federation is indubitably 
more important than the League and, in the second, it gives them an 
excuse to say that the whole conference has been arranged without their 
knowledge. Hyndman, face to face with all of you, couldn’t have done 
the least harm—quite the contrary and, although he claims to represent 
the Possibilists over here in matters connected with the congress, he has 
not dared of late to stand up for them in his paper, but rather has rapped 
them over the knuckles, if very gently. And Bernstein, who is aware of all 
this, would have kept him within decent limits. However, it was the 
Germans who were to convene the conference and, as always, Liebknecht 
acted—or refrained from action—in response to some passing whim. 

4 Lafargue’s letter to Engels of 5 March 1889 — > This refers to the items ‘A Plea 
for Harmony’ in Justice, Vol. VI, No. 268, 2 March 1889, and ‘The Old Ruinous 
Game’ in Justice, Vol. VI, No. 269, 9 March 1889 

I am forwarding your letter to Bernstein so that he can use it for the 
issue of the paper due to appear on Thursday.**! I must also send a letter 
to Liebknecht by this post and so will break off. I enclose herewith a 
cheque for £20, which I hope will relieve you of your difficulties for the 
time being. 

Give Laura a kiss from me. I hope she has got rid of her cold. 

Yours ever, 
EE.