Regarding the Events in France

[Flamelord]

Fellow Members of the United Nations,

France has once again been stricken by war. The ashes of the Second World War and the despot Hitler have barely settled, yet now the fire surges anew, eager to claim the lives of more young men and more patriots. It is not a situation that any would desire, and yet here we are.

No doubt, you are all aware of what has occurred. How elements of the Francs-Tireurs et Partisans conspired with elements of the military to stage a coup d’etat of the Fourth French Republic on the day of Easter. How they succeeded in seizing the apparatus of government in Marseilles, and how it was only through the intervention of Anglo-American forces that President De Gaulle was able to reach safety from his would be captors.

Now war rages in the French countryside again. Loyal units of the army have engaged alongside civilian militias against the conspirators, but have been driven back into Toulouse and Bordeaux.

It is during these events that the conspiracy before us has been revealed. The ‘interim government’ arranged by the plotters wasted no time in voicing their intention to join the French Commune. Even before then, Commune military forces had entered into the territory of the Republic, taking advantage of the chaos to strike a crippling blow against those still loyal to the cause of freedom and democracy.

For what else can this be called, but a strike at the heart of freedom itself. A new Constitution had recently been passed, in which the grievances of the protestors would be addressed. Colonial independence was already being planned by the government of the Republic. But the Communists could not wait. Driven by greed and a lust for power, Chairman Thorez first sought Soviet aid in formenting insurrection in French holdings abroad, and then organizing a hostile regime change.

Let us remember that fact. The Constitution had been newly approved. There had not yet been elections on the French mainland. Perhaps the results would have shown the desire of the people to unite with the Commune. But we will never know now, for it is clear that the Soviets had no intention of accepting any possibility other than their own. Commune troops murder patriots. Soviet aircraft rain terror upon our cities from the skies. The dark hand of Hitler has been replaced with the iron boot of Stalin.

So the Fourth French Republic calls upon the United Nations to act, to not let this blatant aggression go unchecked. Have we not learned the lessons of Munich, of Danzig? We will fight on until the end, and we urge all freedom loving nations to aid us in this struggle and put an end to the schemes of the Parisian Commune, before our fate becomes yours.

[Snacks]

The Soviet Union is glad to hear of General de Gaulle's well-being and continued health. Throughout this crisis, it has been the opinion of Comrades Stalin and Molotov that the cool head of the General is indispensable to the matter of French unity and peace, and followed quite closely news of his safety at meetings in Paris- though I suppose Comrade Stalin will be less pleased to hear that the General's staff slander him so.

I will not dwell on the slander of Soviets citizens nor patriotic Frenchmen but to say that it is false and there have from the beginning been elements in the de Gaulle government which will and have said anything which springs to their minds to deceive the people of France and the world, and that those elements keep company with Corsican organized crime is testament to their depravity. What those elements fear most is that the French will never consent to permanent division.

Rather than refute each lie from the representative of the military government in Algiers, I will instead present the facts. The Soviet Union has never needed to encourage or supply discontent in the south of France, given its far-off colonial wars and the depredations of criminals and foreign strike-breakers against its workers, yet the government of Charles de Gaulle and the United States have conspired to do so in the north, violating the Brunnen Accords by supplying terrorists in northern France to attack the Commune, which the Commune and the Soviet Union both forgave. They subsequently refused to honor those accords by completing the American withdrawal from France in spite of the Soviet Union's complete withdrawal.

The Soviet Union has sought incessantly alternatives to violence in France even amidst this outbreak of violence and still does so. Due to the Commune's concern at American-Gaullist violations of the Brunnen Accords, we provided aid to the military of the Commune, including older planes of the Soviet airforce in order to facilitate the training of a new generation of French pilots and to allow the service of many Communard pilots in need of craft. These are the transactions of two allied nations, and surely the Arsenal of Liberty would not dispute that it provides planes to many friendly nations for their continued security. Nonetheless it has always been the hope of the Soviet Union that this force would not require use, and we have been greatly disappointed by the breakdown of order in the south of France and the necessary intervention of the Commune against violence spilling across the Rhone. Nonetheless, we have sought to prevent this crisis from spiraling out of everyone's control, and Vice Consul Ivan Konev himself is noted to have braved the barricades and street-fighting in Marseilles to contact the commanders of the remaining Anglo-American forces in France- once his comrades in defeating Hitler -and urge their restraint and to prevent this from becoming a third world war as some have predicted with such certainty.

While the representative of General de Gaulle is free to make claims of conspiracy, the simple historical truth remains that the people of France, once unified, have never consented to their own partition. That despite attempts, however earnest, to defray that reckoning they have come to nothing amid the internal contradictions of a France divided, and the nations of the world have no choice but to seek a better solution. The ministers of Charles de Gaulle call for world war, for I remind the good and weary people of Britain and the United States what intervention of our militaries in this conflict means for the world. Despite repeated violations of the Brunnen Accord, despite de Gaulle's declaration of war, the Soviet Union and the Commune have not followed suit- as I urge the other nations of the world not to do. Instead, let us find some remaining chance of peace rather than razing France for the third time in a century. We must remove foreign forces from France and commit to a final peace in western Europe.

[Gesar]

Laurent Casanova, Ambassador to the United Nations
Commune of France

Laughable accusations all, from a man who fled in the face of Hitlerism but chose to stay and fight his own countrymen.

The notion that the "Provisional Government" (or whatever terminology the warlord in the south now uses to prop up his decrepit rule) had any intention of negotiating with the government of the French people is laughable in its entirety - no such notice was given to the capital, nor the people in the south, who have now justifiably risen against the Anglo-American intention to partition the nation.

Equally untrue is the idea of the Commune's intervention happening in lieu of the uprising's failure to secure the entirety of the fatherland. Forces of the Red Army of France were invited by the Interim Government in the south after the matter; any other allegation is utter falsehood, as the entirety of the French government can attest. Even sensitive documents will prove this.

But I wish to return to the idea that General de Gaulle, a hero who by rights should be enjoying a peaceful retirement, had any inclination towards negotiating. Let us look at his own words, published in Le Monde.

"...On the topic of the strikes and their agenda, President De Gaulle had this to say. "Disabuse yourself of this notion. There will be no reunification with the Muscovites in Paris so long as this Republic endures. I will not sign my beloved homeland over to rule by the iron hand of Stalin and his cronies."

Are these the words of a man who seeks peace? Or is it so that, being deprived of the control of the north, of Paris, of the French masses, General de Gaulle wishes for more war? Why else would he deny the peaceful, legal arrest that would have likely resulted in a comfortable retirement, perhaps abroad in an estate provided by his Anglo benefactors? Why would the French people, for so long under Fascist occupation, choose violence and devastation now, when unity was for a moment possible?

Why would he and his cronies ignore such an utterly obvious violation of the Brunnen Accords, if not for their lust for the blood of more Frenchmen? Delegates of the United Nations, reject these pleas. The government that was once in Marseilles has already declared war. Again, refer to their newspapers, if you have any doubt of this. Paris will not do so; this mutiny is an unlawful disturbance of peace, and nothing more. Our doors are always open to diplomacy, and remain so now - perhaps especially so, for the shedding of blood between our countrymen disturbs us while enticing the General. We who seek peace and unity reject any notion of a war, no matter how much our disgraced heroes in the south desire it.

[Flamelord]

Members of the United Nations,

The Soviet Delegate weaves an elegant web of falsehoods and half truths. Poisoned words flow from honeyed lips, seeking to soothe the world into assuming that nothing is wrong, and that this is anything but the naked aggression that it actually is.

We could go in circles for ages, attempting to pin blame and justify what has happened. Yet at the end of the day it comes down to this. The Commune speaks of peace, yet it is they who fired the first shots in this war, the ones who chose to escalate this conflict. Only now do they seek 'diplomacy', as if the declaration of war by the Republic was not merely a formalization of what was already happening in Southern France.

For however much they may wish to claim otherwise, the truth is right there for the world to see. It is not Republican forces in Paris, engaging in some sort of bloodthirsty 'White Terror'. It is the Commune troops in Marseilles. They gun down young men simply for having beliefs different from their own. They storm the very barricades that they once used to protest for things such as freedom and equality.

It seems that freedom only matters when it is the freedom of the Stalinists to destroy.

The Soviet delegate speaks of peace, of the brave actions of Mister Konev. Yet the actions of the Commune were doubtlessly known to the Soviet government before they were taken. There has been no surprise, no willingness by the nations of the Soviet bloc in Europe to bring their erstwhile comrade to heel. If peace was truly desired, then military intervention would not have taken place. To say nothing of the Soviet efforts to forment uprisings in Algeria, in Iraq. In spite of their claims of goodwill to all men.

No, 'diplomacy' became impossible the moment Commune troops stepped into Southern France. The moment that a Communist executed a family for believing differently than him. The moment that our cities and our streets were put under siege and 'unified' by the barrel of a gun.

The echoes of history ring clear for all to see. Do not claim that it is merely a 'French problem', a 'European problem'. For if we fall, it may very well be you who are next, 'liberated' by force of arms for your own good. Do not be lulled into a false sense of security, lest you be stabbed in the back.

As for us, we shall fight. It is not the first time that France has fallen under the shadow of a tyrant, and we will ensure that this occupation ends as well for those who seek to keep the French people in chains as the last did.