BAZAINE AND BISMARK.

Dunstan Times, Issue 497, 27 October 1871, Page 1 (Supplement)

BAZAINE AND BISMARK.

In a very remarkable expose of the motives that actuated Bazaine in his passive defence and ultimate surrender of Metz, published by the Journal des Bhhats, the author—an officer m the army ofthe Rhine—gives the following interesting account of what occurred at the interview between General Boyer and Prince Bismark, when the former was sent by Marshall Bazaine to Versailles with a “mission” to the Prussian Chancellor;— The General introduced to Prince Bismark, a few formal remarks, asked him what were his aims and objects; in a word what he desired as the result of the war. To this M. de Bismark replied very frankly that his policy was most simple; that the French might do as they pleased, that as for themselves (the Germans) they were sure of Paris ; its fall being merely a question of time., “ The French took Rome without injuring its monuments ; the Germans will do the same with Paris, which is a city of art in which nothing shall be destroyed. I have nothing to say to the various considerations that you lay before me. You tell me that your Metz army is the sole element of order [remaining in France, and that it is alone capable of establishing and upholding a Government in the country. If this is the case, constitute tins Government, we will offer no opp sition, and we will then render you some assistance. The Marshall must repair to some town to be named, with hi» army, and summon the Empress thither. In our eyes the sole legal Government ofthe country is still that of the plebiscitum of the Bth of May ; it is the only one we recognise. You speak to me of the necessity for putting an end to war such as this o ;e; but who am I to treat with 1 There is no Chamber. I had proposed to let the elections be held on the 2nd ofOctober,thedepartments occupied by the Prussian troops would have had full liberty in the selection of their deputies. This offer was not taken advantage of. I then suggested the date of the 18th of October with no better success.” We then learn that Prince Bismark, entering into another train of ideas, pronounced the following sentence with no little warmth : —“1 cannot say what will befall France, nor what is the future that awaits her ; but Ido know this, that it will redound to her shame, to the eternal shame in all time, in a’l ages, and in all tongues, to have abandoned her Emperor as she did after Sedan. The strain which she will never wash out is the revolution of the 4th of Si ptemper.” Finally, returning to what was peculiarly the object of the interview, the Chancellor repeated that he would offer no opposition to the reconstitution of a Government by Marshal Bazaine and his army. The author of this article, which fills eight colums of the Dehats, arrives at the conclusion that Marshal Bazaine did not do his duty, or make the most of the means of defence at his disposal, because he allowed political considerations to interfere with his military functions and that by Ihe negotiations which Pnnce Bismark allowed him to carry on he became the dupe of the latter, being compelled to surrender without making a final effort on account of the scarcity of provisions and the physical weakness of his troops the sole end of the Prussian Chancellor’s pietended readiness to his proposals.