  I. Offer to Dr. Kuyper to reproduce his article.—II. Dilatory reply of Dr. Kuyper.—III. Withdrawal of Dr. Kuyper.—IV. M. BrunetiÈre's refusal.—V. The Queen of Holland and Dr. Kuyper's article. Offer To Dr. Kuyper.On March 25th I addressed the following registered letter to Dr. Kuyper: March 25th, 1900. Sir, I have the honour to send you the numbers of Le SiÈcle containing a criticism of your article, "La Crise Sud-Africaine," which appeared in the Revue des Deux Mondes. In order to present the pros and cons to the reader at one and the same time, I ask you to agree to the following proposition: I offer to publish in one pamphlet your article and my reply. I undertake to pay the cost and if there should be any profits to divide them with you. By accepting this proposal you will show that you are as convinced of the solidity of your arguments as I am of the solidity of mine. YVES GUYOT. II. Reply of Dr. Kuyper.I received the following letter, March 29th: Amsterdam, To M. Yves Guyot. Sir, Only having received one number of your paper (23,381) I do not know whether your criticism is finished. As soon as I have it all before me—with references to the documents cited, if you please, At the same time the copyright of my article belongs to the Editor of the Revue des Deux Mondes, without whose permission I can do nothing. As I shall be in Paris before long I will ask him for it, should your polemic attack seem to me to require a reply. With regard to your proposal to leave the risks of a fresh publication to you, while sharing the profits, although I appreciate the delicacy of such a suggestion, I could not accept it. KUYPER. The following remarks on his letter were published by me in Le SiÈcle, March 30th. "With regard to the first point, I regret that, at the time of writing, Dr. Kuyper should only have received one number of Le SiÈcle; each of my replies having been sent to him under registered cover on the day of publication. It is unfortunate for me that Dr. Kuyper's Article should have appeared in the Revue des Deux Mondes, for that brings me again into contact with M. BrunetiÈre, and it is well-known that M. BrunetiÈre who, last year for fifteen days burdened Le SiÈcle with his prose, does not wish this discussion to be presented to the reader in its entirety. I am greatly afraid of his desiring the same isolation for Dr. Kuyper's article. "As far as I am concerned, having began my reply to Dr. Kuyper I shall continue it. If it is not M. BrunetiÈre's wish that our articles should be published together he will thereby acknowledge anew the force of my replies. Were they not documented and convincing, he would not fear their proximity." III. Another Letter.On April 6th I sent the following letter to Dr. Kuyper (registered). April 6th, 1900. Sir, In a few days I shall have finished my replies to your article; they will then be published in pamphlet form. I have the honour to ask you definitely whether you accept my proposal to precede them with your article in the Revue des Deux Mondes. YVES GUYOT. In answer to this I received the following letter from Dr. Kuyper written from the Grand Hotel, Paris: Grand Hotel, 12, Boulevard des Capucines, Sir, My last letter informed you to what extent I could meet your wishes. Now that, without regard to my reply, you simply ask for the authorisation to print my article in a pamphlet which you propose to publish, I can only refer you to the person who has the power to dispose of the copyright. KUYPER. I was under the impression that I had acted in accordance with the reply of Dr. Kuyper, who in his letter, March 28th, wrote: "The copyright of my article belongs to the Editor of the Revue des Deux Mondes, without whose permission I can do nothing. As I shall be in Paris before long I will ask him for it should your polemics seem to me to require a reply." But since Mr. Kuyper withdrew from the correspondence I wrote the following letter to Mr. BrunetiÈre, Editor of the Revue des Deux Mondes: April 13th, 1900. To the Editor, Sir, In the Revue des Deux Mondes, February 1st, an article was published by Dr. Kuyper under the title of "La Crise Sud-Africaine." I have published a criticism upon it in Le SiÈcle; and in order that both sides of the question may be presented to the reader, I have asked Dr. Kuyper's authorisation to reproduce his article in a pamphlet in which I purpose to collect my own. On March 28th, Dr. Kuyper wrote me: "The copyright of my article belongs to the editor of the Revue des Deux Mondes, without whose permission I can do nothing. As I shall be in Paris before long I will ask him for it, should your polemic attack seem to me to require a reply." To-day Dr. Kuyper writes to me from the Grand Hotel, Paris: "I can only refer you to the person who has the power to dispose of the copyright." Since I am asked by Dr. Kuyper to make the request which he had undertaken to make himself, I will do so. I have the honour to ask you for the authorisation to publish Dr. Kuyper's article which appeared in the Revue des Deux Mondes under the title of "La Crise Sud-Africaine," and to inform me of your conditions for the reproduction. YVES GUYOT. IV. M. BrunetiÈre's Refusal.The next day I received the following from M. BrunetiÈre: Paris, Sir, You ask me for the authorisation to publish in a pamphlet Dr. Kuyper's article which appeared in the Revue des Deux Mondes, under the title of "La Crise Sud-Africaine." I hasten to refuse you the authorisation. I am, Sir, etc., In this reply I trace M. BrunetiÈre's habitual courtesy. If I do not thank him for his refusal, I yet thank him for the promptness with which it was signified by him. It had been my desire to enable the reading public to judge for themselves the value of the arguments put forward by Dr. Kuyper and myself; but it was evidently M. BrunetiÈre's wish that Dr. Kuyper's article should be known only to the readers of the Revue des Deux Mondes, and that they should remain ignorant of my reply. This is in itself a confession; for undoubtedly had Dr. Kuyper been convinced that it was impossible for me to refute his arguments he would have requested M. BrunetiÈre to give me the authorisation to reproduce his article. V.On April 26th a telegram from the Havas Agency announced that the Queen of Holland had received the journalists of Amsterdam, of whom Dr. Kuyper is President. I therefore wrote the following letter to Mr. W.H. de Beaufort, the Dutch Minister for Foreign Affairs: Paris, To H.E. the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Sir, The Havas Agency, in a telegram, April 26, gives the following information: "Replying to a speech made by Dr. Kuyper, President of the Society of Journalists, the Queen said she had read with interest his article on the South African crisis, published in a Paris review. The Queen expressed the hope that the article would be circulated abroad, adding that she considered it important that it should be widely distributed in America." That the Queen of a constitutional government, such as that of Holland, should have spoken in this way, proves that the Cabinet is of the same mind. I trust, therefore, that I am not too bold in asking your assistance to carry out Her Majesty's intentions. I had asked Dr. Kuyper's authorisation to reproduce his article at the beginning of a pamphlet; he referred me to M. BrunetiÈre, who with the courtesy of which he has given me so many proofs, replied: "I hasten to refuse your request." M. BrunetiÈre's views are evidently opposed to those of the Queen of the Netherlands. It is true that the article would have been followed by my criticism, but if the arguments therein contained are irrefutable, why fear the proximity of my refutation? I beg you, therefore, to be kind enough to ask M. BrunetiÈre to give me permission to second the views of Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands by assisting to circulate Dr. Kuyper's article. YVES GUYOT. I have published my pamphlet while awaiting M. BrunetiÈre's reply to the Dutch Government which can hardly do otherwise than make the request, agreeing, as it does, with the views of Her Majesty. Should M. BrunetiÈre by any chance cease to fear the proximity to Dr. Kuyper's assertions of the facts and documents published by me, I will issue a new Edition. |
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