ABSTRACT
We were the first to arrive at Fashoda, and we have captured it only from barbarism, from which you proceeded to liberate Khartoum two months later. To ask us to evacuate it prior to all discussions would amount to issuing an ultimatum. – Very well! Who, then, knowing France could be in any doubt as to my reply? You are not ignorant of my desire for an entente with England, an entente which would be as advantageous for England as for France, nor my conciliatory sentiments. I have affirmed them so freely only because you yourself know that they will not take me beyond the bounds indicated by national honour. I can make sacrifices of material interest to the entente between the two countries, but in my hands the national honour will remain intact. Nobody in my place would speak to you in any other terms and perhaps would not offer you the same friendly disposition.
