Jun 17, 2021 - Sale 2573

Sale 2573 - Lot 17

Price Realized: $ 875
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
"OUR MILITARY PREPARATION WAS NOT WHAT IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN" CLEMENCEAU, GEORGES. Autograph Letter Signed, "GClemenceau," to Lady Edward Cecil, in French, hoping to route a reply to her letter through Paris, intending to continue printing Homme Libre in Toulouse tomorrow, describing the sacrifices of a nurse Madeleine, remarking that he cannot get through to George, praising the attitude of the British, confessing that French military preparation was insufficient, remarking that the path to victory lies in the agreement of the allies to fight together, speculating that France will never sell out, giving the address of Mary and her mother in the Pyrenees, reporting that the Germans seem to have become weak, hoping that Paris will soon be clear again, and, in a postscript, asking after the health of Michel. 4 pages, 8vo, written on a folded sheet, third and terminal pages written vertically; horizontal fold. With the original envelope. Bordeaux, 9 September 1914

Additional Details

". . . I have found an opportunity to get this note to Paris tomorrow evening. Perhaps it will reach you earlier that way. . . . [T]he government here . . . to publish the Homme Libre. I will start tomorrow. The paper will be printed at Toulouse.
"I have . . . with me Madeleine whose son is at Verdun. She spends the days looking after the wounded who are in great need . . . . I see her but for a moment in the evening. I have tried . . . to get in touch with George. Impossible! . . . [O]ne voice for the magnificent attitude of the English. . . . Our military preparation was not what it should have been . . . . There are deceptions. . . . The stand taken by the three allies never to wage war separately is, in my eyes, the gage for an assured victory. At any rate, one will not find in France a government that will make any proposals for peace. . . . Our unhappy country will suffer as long as will be necessary, but it will not sell out. . . . The public spirit here is admirable. I have never seen our people that way.
"Mary and her mother are at St. Jean de Luz . . . . The Germans seem at the end of their strength. The English and the French have prevented them from passing the Marne. Perhaps Paris will be cleared. . . . I know that you have courage. I will have it too."
In late August of 1914, as the Germans advanced toward the city, Paris scrambled its defenses and moved the government to Bordeaux. Clemenceau, who had been publishing his newspaper, L'Homme libre, in Paris since 1913, ceased operations in early September 1914 when the government began censoring the paper. After moving his office to Bordeaux and engaging a press in Toulouse, he renamed the paper L'Homme enchaîné and resumed publishing.