Description

June to September 1942 – Exchanges of letters between the Commissioner General for Jewish Questions, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, the Interior, Justice, the Prefecture of Police in Paris and the Resident General in Rabat, concerning the cases of individuals having asked to receive or keep French nationality. It should be noted that the correspondences between June and September are few.

On June 4, the Resident General in Rabat wrote to the Minister of Justice « on the situation of certain Moroccan Muslims or Israelites born in France or Algeria and having thus acquired French nationality « jure soli ». He specifies that « Israelites of Moroccan origin claim in particular the quality of French citizens although they have resumed the traditional ways of life of their Moroccan co-religionists ». Finally, he suggests : « On the occasion of the overhaul of [the] legislation, currently under study […], we could introduce a provision specifying that nationals of a country placed under the protectorate of France must not be considered as foreigners under nationality laws and never lose their original nationality ». On July 9, the Minister of Justice wrote to the Minister of Foreign Affairs on this last point : « It would even be possible to consider submitting to the Council of State […] the case of individuals who possess, even in their original capacity, the French nationality, and in fact behave like Moroccan subjects ».

On June 8, the Minister of Justice wrote to the Minister of Foreign Affairs that he was not in favor (and he explained his reasons) to « a text of law providing that the child born abroad of a foreign father and of a mother who remained French at the time of her marriage would himself be French if at the time of his birth the father served under the flags of France and if the residence of the parents is attributable only to a decision of the military authority ». On August 12, the Minister of Foreign Affairs transmits this opinion to the Resident General in Rabat.

On September 1, the Resident General in Rabat asked for the opinion of the Minister of Foreign Affairs : « The question arises as to whether […] a request for voluntary registration for a training period in the Youth Workshops presented by a foreigner born in France and domiciled in Morocco can be assimilated, with a view to the acquisition of French nationality, to voluntary participation in operations on the recruitment of the Army provided for by the decree of January 25, 1934 ».

On November 7, « Note for the Sub-Directorate of Chancelleries and Litigations » of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which had issued a note on October 25 (sent on October 29 to the Political Direction) for the attention of the Sub-Directorate Afrique-Levant to indicate to him that it wants to resume the examination of the requests formulated by two categories of foreigners seeking the acquisition or reinstatement of French nationality in Tunisia and Morocco. A favorable opinion is given.