Note 60 — Chapter II · THE MEANS OF CONDUCTING WAR

In the year 1870, 145 French officers, including three Generals, one Colonel, two Lieutenant-Colonels, three Commandants, thirty Captains (Bismarck’s Despatch of December 14th, 1870), were guilty of breaking their parole. The excuses, afterwards put forward, were generally quite unsound, though perhaps there may have been an element of doubt in some of the cases so positively condemned on the German side. The proceedings of the French Government who allowed these persons without scruple to take service again were subsequently energetically denounced by the National Assembly.