But listen to the counsel of a Frenchman whom it would
have been to his country's interest to listen to oftener.
     Order that this people no longer be told that the 
word of France does not count, that it should have been
broken, towards Poland, on September 3, 1939, that it should
have been broken, towards England, on June 16, 1940.
     Having lost "everything but honor," what would be 
left to our people if honor were taken away from it?
     Order that our youth no longer be given the ideal
of collaborating with an enemy who is annexing Alsace and 
Lorraine in contempt of the aarmistice and whose banners
are floating over Paris, for we cannot straighten our
backs and bend them at the same time.
     Order that the stoic people, our ally, on whom our
salvation depends, no longer be defamed.
     There can be no greater peril for a nation than to
see its soul degraded.
     Return to what is, surely, at the bottom of you heart
as a Frenchman.
     Please accept, etc.
               PAUL REYNAUD
 
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