France, Sunday, 2nd August

2.00 P.M. The cabinet agree a proclamation of a state of emergency. The National Assembly now has to meet within forty-eight hours.

Afternoon Poincaré starts preparing his message to the National Assembly. He wants to say "at last we can release the cry, until now smothered in our breasts: Vive L' Alsace Lorraine" but ministers persuade him that such a declaration will be bad for foreign opinion and make the war appear as one of revenge. He agrees to remove the passage.