ABSTRACT
The majority of both French and German socialists adhered to the cause of national defence throughout the war. Thus each party wished and strove for an outcome of the conflict which the other wished and strove to frustrate. Most French socialists, all those who followed Jules Guesde's line, insisted that removal of the fear of a future war presupposed the destruction of 'Prussian militarism' and of 'German imperialism'. The peace programme of the majority of German socialists contained no demands or conditions regarding constitutional or other internal matters of the countries of the Entente coalition, but their qualification on the territorial settlement was unacceptable to the French socialists – and for that matter to any other French party. In June 1917 the German majority socialists formulated their views on the Alsace-Lorraine issue more comprehensively in the 'Stockholm Memorandum'. The proposal of autonomy for Germany's Poles provoked the wrath of some Pan-German press organs.
