“The decision of his Majesty with respect to our expected co-operation, direct or indirect, will depend, on the one hand, upon military considerations which are still under discussion, as well as upon the contents of the French official overtures announced in your Excellency’s telegram No. 196. On the other hand, we must take advantage of the present situation with the object of removing every uncertainty which the French may endeavour to read into our agreements. Should your Excellency really have occasion to suppose, as would appear to me from the contents of your reports of the 22nd and 23rd instant, that the French intend to interpret the treaty of peace as if the sentence in Article 3--_L’evacuation des départements--s’opèrera graduellement après la ratification du traité de paix definitif_--were modified by that which follows it, separated only by a semi-colon: _après le versement--la rive droite_, in such a way that the words of the first sentence, from _après_ to _definitif_, would be rendered of no effect for the territory in question, your Excellency will please demand from the French Government, in the form of an ultimatum, a clear explanation upon this point. Were this to be refused I should lose all faith in its intention to honourably fulfil its treaty obligations, and it would then become desirable to renew the military operations as early as possible. We will not permit ourselves to be cozened out of our present position, but will, on the contrary, hold fast to it until the definitive peace has been concluded to our satisfaction. We have made these stipulations in order that we may be able to bring pressure to bear with this object. So long as the obligations undertaken, but not yet fulfilled, by France with respect to the indemnity and the prisoners of war remain unfulfilled, and so long as the above-mentioned doubt as to the intentions of the French Government respecting the interpretation of the preliminary peace and the conclusion of a definitive treaty is not removed, I must advise his Majesty against every form of support for the Versailles Government; and instead of any such support, I must recommend that a demand be at once addressed to the French authorities to reduce the number of their troops in accordance with the terms of the treaty, or to be prepared for a renewal of hostilities.”