Note 700 — Chapter XII

The Gaulois published articles on June 9 and 17, 1905, asserting that Prince Henckel von Donnersmarck had also been sent by the German government to Paris about June 1 to warn Rouvier that Delcassé must be dismissed (Mévil, pp. 273 ff.; Bourgeois et Pagès, p. 310). The editors of G.P. state that this story is “exaggerated”; Donnersmarck was mentioned only once in the documents, they assert—in a dispatch from Radolin on June 17, 1905, describing the assertions of Donnersmarck given in Gaulois as apocryphal (G.P., XX, 390 n.). According to Eckardstein, Rouvier declared to him on May 4 that some time previously Donnersmarck had asserted to him, apparently at Bülow’s request, that there were only two possibilities, a Franco-German alliance or war. On the other hand, Eckardstein saw Donnersmarck in Berlin on June 6 and found him eager for news from London and Paris (Eckardstein, III, 103 f., 127 f.). It seems clear that Donnersmarck’s assertions, whatever they were, were made on his own responsibility; that, as the editors of G.P. state, Bülow issued his warnings directly to Rouvier (G.P., XX, 390 n.).