The Origins of the First World War by Joll James. Martel Gordon. & Gordon Martel

Author:Joll, James.,Martel, Gordon. & Gordon Martel [James Joll]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781317875352
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Yet for all the vigour with which the Left opposed the three-year law, the situation was more complicated than it at first appeared to be. Some people were prepared to support the law as a short-term emergency measure to be repealed in due course: the army leaders themselves would have been satisfied with a less drastic increase of the number of men to the colours, and they were worried that they would not have enough barracks available to house the new conscripts. Many socialists, including their leader Jean Jaurès, were in favour of national defence, but wanted a measure that would be part of a complete reorganization of the whole system. The supporters of an increase in the size of the army were divided between those who thought that a shorter extension of the period of service would be enough or that the call-up could be more selective, while others were totally opposed to any measure that appeared to distinguish between one class of citizen and another. Moreover, the problem of cost meant that the prolongation of the period of service was closely connected with the need to increase revenue by means of an income tax, so that there were, especially among the various radical groups, many people who willed the end but were not prepared to vote the means.68

But even if the division of opinion over the three-year law was not as clear-cut as it sometimes seemed, there is no doubt that the result of the 1914 elections was extremely worrying for the supporters of the law and especially for President Poincaré himself, who sometimes talked of resigning if there were any move to repeal the law. In choosing a prime minister in June 1914 he was determined to find one who would, in spite of the socialist gains in the new Chamber, wholeheartedly commit himself to the maintenance of the three-year period of service. However, when Poincaré’s first nominee had been defeated in parliament after only three days in office, the president was forced to settle for René Viviani, a former socialist and now an independent, whose commitment to the cause of the three-year law was somewhat ambiguous. His vacillation, moodiness and inexperience in foreign affairs led Poincaré to criticize him bitterly over the next few weeks: in his diary entry for 27 July 1914, while at sea on the way back from his and Viviani’s visit to St Petersburg, he wrote that he ‘passed part of the day explaining to Viviani that weakness towards Germany always resulted in complications and that the only way to remove the danger was to show firm perseverence and impassive sangfroid. But he is nervous and agitated and doesn’t stop pronouncing imprudent words or phrases which reveal a black ignorance of matters of foreign policy.’69 Up to the outbreak of the war, the future of the three-year law still seemed to be in doubt, since Viviani’s government, in order to secure the support of the chamber, announced that it envisaged an eventual shortening of the period of service.

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