But the Treaty of Frankfort intervened between
Hugo's eloquent plea for world peace and the calling
of the first Hague Conference. Alsace and Lorraine
were no longer provinces of France and the phrase:
"Y penser toujours, n'en parler jamais," had become
a parole célèbre. Tangier and Algeciras came between
the first and second Hague Conferences; and almost
simultaneously with the Czar's second call, the Kaiser
in congratulating the Colonial party upon its victory
over the Social Democrats, had declared: "What do we
care for the rules according to which the enemy fights
if he is beaten in the fighting? We have now learned
the art of conquering him and are filled with the desire
to practice it further." ² Under these circumstances it
could hardly be expected that France would go into the
second Hague Conference, called by her ally, with the
idea that international peace and friendship were soon
to be achieved. Even if M. Jaurès or M. d'Estour-
nelles de Constant so thought, M. Clemenceau assuredly
did not.

When the question came before the Chambre, June
7, 1907, M. Francis de Pressensé made a long and elo-
quent appeal in favor of the reduction of armaments,
and urged that the French delegation should be author-
ized to support such a proposal. In his reply M.
Pichon showed that since Germany had already given
a categorical refusal to discuss any such proposition,
France was hardly in a position to insist. However,
he declared that France was willing to discuss the ques-
tion with those Powers that understood the utility and
necessity of such a debate, and that France was send-

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