pendence was exhibited with equal clearness and emphasis in President Poincaré’s speech also. This speech, to which I should like to add a few remarks, formed the culminating point of the presentation of the colours to our 21st regiment. The ceremony itself was attended by the President of the Republic, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ministers Leygues and Lebrun, military representatives of the Allies, representatives of the municipality of Paris, General Castelnau, General Janin, and others. I first delivered an address to the troops on behalf of the National Council, and this was followed by the President’s speech. I still remember most vividly the preparation for this ceremony. It was the first occasion during the struggle for our independence upon which I found myself in an official situation as a representative of the independent State. It is therefore not surprising if I still recall with emotion that memorable ceremony at Darney on June 30th: the spectacle of our troops marching past the President, the ministers, and generals, and proclaiming their vow, the officers with drawn swords and the rank and file by raising the fingers of their right hand, that they would return home as free men or else die on the French battlefield. I experienced similar emotions on the Italian front in the Tyrolese Alps at the beginning of October 1918, and also on the French front in Champagne with the army of General Gourand, when on November 8th I paid a visit to our troops at Terron. It was at Darney that for the first time I felt confident of victory, while in the Alps above Rovereto I surmised the approaching end of the Habsburg monarchy, and at Terron it was my privilege to inform the troops that we had been victorious in our struggle for freedom, and that they were to prepare for the journey to their liberated country.
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As I have already pointed out, I was at that time concerned about something more than a merely French proclamation. Being always preoccupied by the necessity for a clearly formulated common policy of the Allies, and still feeling some misgivings as to various peace manœuvres with Austria, we continued to seek a method of securing, either directly or indirectly, an Allied commitment of solidarity against Austria-Hungary. The endeavour to obtain a collective declaration of all the Allies in favour of all the oppressed peoples had not been successful, as we have seen, and to begin with I therefore
