4. It is inexact that "the armistice spared French families the hence forth vain sacrifice of their children." As soon as the (military) command declared that the fight had become purposeless, I proposed to stop it on the osil of metropolitan France, as it had been in the Netherlands, which would have spared us the losses suffered during the long periods which were necessary for the obtain- ing of the armistice. This would have been the case if I had not been obliged to yield the power, succumbing to the coalition composed of yourself, General Weygand, and the majority of the ministers to whom high military author- ities stated: "In three weeks England will have her neck wrung like a chicken." It is not, therefore, the government of which I was the head nor any of its members which can be accused of having thought that "French blood had not flowed enough." 5. It is inexact to say that the armistice terms "would have been less onerous" if it had been asked for sooner. When, on June 12 at Cange, General Wegand asked to conclude an armistice, our armies had succumbed in the home country. Germany showed, and shows every day, that she intends to obtain the maximum results from her victory within the framework and without the framework of the armistice. |