the ironical laughter that had accompanied the
reading of the protest.

In July, 1917, a Socialist deputy of the Reichstag
is reported to have said: "In the eyes of all Socialists
what occurred in 1871 was nothing else than the
return of these fundamentally German provinces
into the bosom of the great German family. During
the entire course of the war, that party to which I
belong has considered as a self-evident principle that
the total or the partial cession of Alsace-Lorraine
was not at all open to discussion. For every Ger-
man Socialist, the question of Alsace-Lorraine was
definitely settled in 1871."

But in 1871 the leaders of the Socialist party,
Bebel and Liebknecht, to their everlasting credit,
protested against the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine.
They were forthwith put in prison for having main-
tained their opinion in speeches and in writings.

By Germany's insistence upon the cession of
Alsace-Lorraine in 1871, and by these repeated pro-
tests of the people of Alsace-Lorraine against that
act, a new and highly disturbing element was intro-
duced into the history of Europe, nor has it yet
been eliminated.

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