Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1879-02-08 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

ALSATIAN'S SPEECH  M. Jean Dollfrui, Deputy from Alsace, recently delivered the following wise speech in the German. Parliament :  " Permit me to protest against the enormous military budget by which, every year, increasingly heavy sums of money are being demanded, as a consequense of the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine. The military expenses for all Germany, several years before the war a ith France, did not exceed the half of what is now being expended, and yet they are asking us for a further increase every year. The Budget of 1877 amounts to the sum of £22,400,000, and, in addition to this, we are asked for a loan of £8,400,000 for the construction of barracks. If you are obliged to continue these expenses for fifty years, you will have raised in imposts a total of twelve hundred and fifty million pounds sterling, or a still higher amount if we reckon the interest of this money; and also take account of the immense amount lost every year by the withdrawal from labour of our strongest men during the military service which their country demands from them. Would it not be a vast advantage to follow a policy which would allow ne to maintain much smaller armies, and to employ more usefully, for the prosperity and well-being of Germany and of all Europe, the incredible sums now squandered, rather than to seek to multiply the means of slaughter. jug each other upon the field of battle? Our modern wars, owing to the extending communications between the nations, and the perfection of their weapons, are becoming more and more murderous, and an increasingly terrible curse to humanity. We ought all, therefore, to desire the maintenance of peace, and to regard it as a sacred duty to aid a which can promote the intellectual, moral, and material development of the peoples. We must bring about the suppression of all national hatred, and especially of all religions animosities. We are created to love each other, and not to destroy and cut one another's throats. Every European war may now be regarded as a civil war. The immense military expenditures are ruining Europe. Every day her debts and taxes are increasing in a frightful manner. They may be alrea4ly estimated at three thousand million pounds sterling, whilst about four million men are kept perpetually under arms. Germany has already reaped sufficient glory upon fields of battle, and should now desire the still more honourable laurels which are to be gained by increasing in every way the happiness of the people. Whatever Germany might accomplish in the better security for peace, and in reducing her immense military expenditure, would also facilitate, on a far greater scale than has ever yet been practicable, the settlement of international dispute by means of arbitration. We are bound to add to that great progress which our century has made, and which has already done so much for humanity, everything which can secure the permanent establishment of peace. We have killed sufficient millions by battles since the commencement of this century, and should now seek to terminate these human butcheries. If you were to give up Alsace-Lorraine, whose annexation will always be to Germany what Lombardy and Venice were to Austria, and which is indeed ruining Germany. both by the huge military expense which it renders aecessary, and by the mischiefs which our great Alsatian manufactures inflict upon your industries, you would Immediately be able to put an end to all these evils. You chose to annex Alsace-Lorraine because you thought that you would thus secure yourselves from new wars. But if so, why are you so enormously garrisoned, and why do you raise such an extreme taxation? You would have no more war to fear if you were to do this which we ask for. You would convert us and all the Freneh people into your best friends. With the development of liberty amongst the two nations, with the progress of civilisation and of well-being, and of ever-increasing amicable intercourse, we should at length succeed in putting an end to hufnan slaughter, that relic of barbarous ages. Great Germany, by so doing, would be congratulated by all Europe, and would indeed realize that which you have inscribed upon the monument of your honoured King William lll.—' Gerechtigkeit erhOht die Volker Frieda auf Erden I—Righteousness exalts tile people I Upon earth Peace !"