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Letter from the Commander of the Constantine Division to the Prefect concerning the incidents between riflemen and Israelites and the legal prohibition of skirmishers from entering the Jewish quarter of the city.

” General Leguay, Commander of the Constantine Division to the Prefect of the Department of Constantine.

You have certainly been aware of the brawls that occurred on the evening of February 7 between sharpshooters and Israelites.

From the investigation made on this subject, it follows that isolated skirmishers walking in the Jewish quarter were assaulted, apparently without provocation, by many Israelites and brutally beaten with truncheons and knives. One of them was even shot with a bullet.

Independently of the judicial consequences which this aggression involves and to avoid the return of regrettable facts, I wish, in accordance with the orders of the General Commandant the 19th Corps of Army, to fix, in concert with you, the conditions in which can be regulated the relationship between the indigenous military and the Israeli population.
Following serious brawls, the military authority decided several years ago to forbid native soldiers from entering the Jewish quarter. Over time, these prescriptions have been somewhat lost. It will not escape you, moreover, that they currently have an outdated and overly rigorous character.

It is difficult to accept that a part of the population of Constantine, which enjoys all the rights of French citizens, has, moreover, the privilege of transforming part of public roads into a forbidden region.

The strict application of such a rule would, moreover, lead to a host of practical difficulties; it is clear, indeed, that, for the service, the skirmishers must be able to cross the Jewish quarter, like the other districts of the city.

I, therefore, think that it is not necessary to perpetuate an abnormal situation and that a new formula should be adopted, which could be the following:
The access of cabarets, drinking places, houses of tolerance of the Israelite district will be prohibited to the native soldiers; it will be understood that they will be able to cross the Jewish quarter, either to go to another point of the city, for reasons of service or to make purchases in the houses other than those enumerated above.

I hope that you will share my way of seeing and I will be obliged to make known to you your opinion on this subject, after taking, if you judge it appropriate, the opinion of the Mayor of Constantine, who is also interested in the question.

Leguay”

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