In the Revue des Deux Mondes (Paris), of which he is managing editor,
M. Francis Charmes, of the Academie Francaise, replies to a speech
made by von Bethmann-Hollweg before the Reichstag, in which the German
Chancellor expressed sympathy for the deluded French soldiers, who
had not an inkling of the true course which the war was taking. M.
Charmes ironically remarks:
We do not publish, he [von Bethmann-Hollweg] claims, any of
the German dispatches, so that opinion is quite
unenlightened as to what is actually happening on the field
of battle.
One would think, according to M. de Bethmann-Hollweg, that
the German dispatches are a source on which one can rely
with full confidence, and one would imagine, too, since he
had thus reproached us, that the German newspapers published
the French dispatches.
As a matter of fact, they do not and if it is necessary to
hear both sides to know the truth then the Germans are quite
ignorant of it. They are indeed very far removed from
knowing it, and it is a constant surprise to our officers
and our soldiers to discover when they question their
prisoners, the profound illusions under which they labor.