HC Deb 11 February 1915 vol 69 cc698-9
3. Mr. JOWETT

asked whether the telegrams relative to a guarantee by Great Britain of the neutrality of France, referred to in Appendix II. (b) of Miscellaneous, No. 15, 1914, was communicated to M. Cambon, the French Ambassador, before the 3rd August, to the French Government before 4th August, and to the British Cabinet before 3rd August?

Sir E. GREY

I would refer the hon. Member to the reply which I gave to the Noble Lord the Member for Hitchin on the 28th August last, from which it is clear that there was a complete misunderstanding as to the nature of the suggestion made by the German Ambassador and that there was therefore nothing on the subject to communicate to the French Government or the Cabinet on the dates named. If the German proposal had been, as at first supposed, that Germany would remain neutral, if France remained neutral, I should, of course, have submitted it to the French Government. But the German proposal was ascertained to be that France should remain neutral when Germany went to war with Russia. In other words, that France should be faithless to her Alliance with Russia. I could not suggest that to the French and they would have rightly resented any suggestion of the kind.