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The Groupe Colonial in the French Chamber of Deputies, 1892–1932

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

C. M. Andrew  and
A. S. Kanya-Forstner
C. M. Andrew
Affiliation:
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
A. S. Kanya-Forstner
Affiliation:
York University, Ontario
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Type
Communications
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , December 1974 , pp. 837 - 866
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

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References

Abbreviations used in the notes and appendices: D.C.: Dépêche Coloniale; J.O. Déb. Part. Chambre: Journal Officiel, Débats Parlementaires, Chambre; J.O. Doc. Part. Chambre : Journal Officiel, Documents Parlementaires, Chambre; P.C.: Politique Coloniale.

1 Minute book of the groupe colonial, 9 June 1892, Archives Nationales (section Oufre-Mer), Papiers d'Agents: Martineau 3. For the influence of the groupe colonial on the course of Anglo French relations in the 1890s see Andrew, C. M. and Kanya-Forstner, A. S., ‘ Gabriel Hanotaux, the Colonial Parry and the Fashoda strategy ’ in Penrose, E. F. (ed.), European Imperialism and the Partition of Africa (forthcoming).Google Scholar

2 The minute book records eleven meetings between 9 June 1892 and 27 February 1893. The Politique Coloniale reported a further three meetings in July and November 1892, and five meetings between March and July 1893. The secretary of the groupe colonial, Alfred Martineau, performed his duties with decreasing application. The president failed to sign the minutes of the last athree meetings, the secretary of the last two. The list of members present at the last meeting was left blank. The minutes themselves took up only 33 pages of the exercise book in which they were kept. The remainder were later used by Martineau for his notes of a mission to New Caledonia in 1897–8.

3 Le Temps, 17 June 1892.Google Scholar

4 For the list of these members, see Appendix II. Unfortunately the official membership list was neither complete nor completely accurate. The original list totalled 101, including Françonie, the Socialist deputy for Guyane Francaise who immediately denied that he was a member. Subsequently another six names were added in Martineau's handwriting. Four more deputies were present at various meetings of the groupe colonial, although their names do not appear on the membership list. Finally, the list of members published by the Politique Coloniale contains a further three names which do not appear in the minute book. The membership may well have been even larger. Deputies like Georges Berger, the organizer of the second Mizon expedition, Comte Greffulhe, a founder member of the Comité de l'Afrique Française, Jean Codet and Maurice Lebon, both of whom attended the meeting which reconstituted the groupe colonial in November 1893, were undoubtedly colonialist sympathizers, but in the absence of more definite evidence we have excluded their names.

5 For a full list of the officers, see Appendix I. The most active officers in 1892–3 were Etienne (president), Arenberg, Vallon (vice-presidents), Martineau (secretary) and Le Roy (questeur). The most active of the rank and file were Deloncle, who attended nine of the recorded meetings and spoke at eight of them, Lanjuinais and de Mahy, who attended six and spoke at five, La Ferronnays, who attended five and spoke at four, and Armand, who attended six and spoke at three.

6 Arenberg, Dupuytrem, Elva, de Montfort, Muller, de Mun, Piou. Arenberg, Muller and Piou were members of the Droite Conslitutionnelle which was formed in 1890. Jules Delafosse was also a member, but for purely tactical reasons. Official membership lists of political groups in the Chamber were not published until 1910. We have determined the political affiliation of deputies during the period 1889 to 1898 by reference to their professions de foi and votes on certain key issues. For the period 1898 to 1910 we have used the Annuaire du Parlement.

7 We have included as Radicals three members of the Gauche Radicate, Boissy d'Anglas, Delcassé and Letellier.

8 The only issue in 1889 on which it is possible to classify deputies with precision was their acceptance or rejection of the Republican regime. We have, therefore, included as Republicans some half-dozen deputies who were generally conservative in their policies and were distinguished from the more moderate Conservatives almost exclusively by their acceptance of the Republic. Aynard, Loreau and Léon Say were members of the Union tibérale. Morillot joined Arenberg in the Droite Constilutionnelle.

9 Albert de Mun also lost his seat but re-entered Parliament through a by-election in early 1894.

10 According to the Politique Coloniale, a hundred members attended the meeting of the groupe on 26 Jan. 1894. Even if this figure was exaggerated, the attendance was almost certainly larger than at any previous meeting. P.C., 27 Jan. 1894.

11 For a list of these members and the sources from which it has been compiled see Appendix III.

12 We have included as a Republican Raphael-Louis Bischoffsheim who, though a member of the Union Libérale, declared himself ‘ républicain depuis l'âge de la raison ’.

13 Bazille, Bérard, Chautemps, Delbet, Guieysse, lung, de la Porte, Pams, Rameau and Samary all signed the manifesto of the Association pour les réjormes républicaines in Aug. 1894. Gerville Réache and Lockroy were on the committee of the Comité central d'action républicaine.

14 See Appendices IV and V.

15 P.C., 19 June 1902; Bulletin du Comité de l'Afique Française, July 1902.

16 The first two Socialists to join the groupe colonial were, significantly, deputies for the two main colonial ports: Antide Boyer for Marseille, Antoine Jourde for Bordeaux.

17 See appendices IV and V. The number of groupe colonial members named by the Annuaire du Parlement in the various political groups in the Chamber before the 1902 elections (with the total membership of those groups given in brackets) was: Socialistcs Révolutionnaires: 0 (13); Socialistes: 2 (29); Radical-Socialistes: 7 (107); Gauche Démocratique: 14 (97); Union Progressiste: 21 (92); Progressistes: 46 (180); Action Libérate: 14 (57). The total membership of the Progressistes before the 1902 elections is uncertain; we have given the figure for 1901. 22 members of the groupe colonial did not belong to any political group. The corresponding figures for the Chamber elected in 1902 were: Socialistes: o (29); Socialistes Indépendants: 1 (13); Radical-Socialistes: 14 (117); Gauche Radicate: 22 (116); Union Démocratique: 41 (102); Républicains-Progressistes: 34 (135); Action Libérale: 10 (75); Républicains-Nationalistes: 3 (54). 15 members of the groupe colonial did not belong to any political group. In both legislatures some deputies belonged to more than one group.

18 A new groupe du commerce extérieur et des colonies was formed in June 1906. According to the Dépêche Coloniale it had 160 members and absorbed the groupe colonial of the previous legislature (D.C. 23 June 1906). But nothing more is known about this group; it is not listed in the Annuaire du Parlement, and probably disintegrated soon after it was formed.

19 Le Mots Colonial et Maritime, Dec. 1907, pp. 771–2 (we are grateful to Mr Peter Grupp for this reference). During 1907 Etienne was also engaged in founding a new association, the Ligue Coloniale, intended to reunite all French colonialists and to show that ‘ les questions coloniales ne sont pas des questions de parti ’.

20 Annuaire du Parlement, 1907–8, 1909.Google Scholar

21 Annuaire du Parlement, 1910–11, 1911–12; Les cornets de Georges Louis (Paris, 1926), II, 110. For a list of probable members of the groupe colonial in 1910–12 see Appendix VI.Google Scholar

22 Andrew and Kanya-Forstner, ‘ The French “ Colonial Party ” ’, pp. 123–5.

23 Former ministers or under-secretaries: Barthou, Clémentel, Delcassé, Etienne, Jonnart, de Lanessan, Leygues, Siegfried, Thomson. Presidents or vice-presidents of the Chamber: Clémentel, Deschanel, Etienne. Presidents or vice-presidents of the foreign affairs commission: Deschanel, Etienne, Hubert, Métin, Rozet. Augagneur, Chaumet, Lebrun, Messimy and Métin were to hold ministerial office during the course of the Parliament. For the political affiliations of the groupe colonial's officers and members see Appendices I and VI.

24 Archives Nationales, F712,844, dossier ‘ Les Annales Coloniales ’. The Annales Coloniales listed 15 deputies and two senators as its collaborateurs politiques in 1912. Not all, however, were ardent colonialists. They were, according to the Sûreté report, ‘ pour la plupart ou des ambitieux guettant un portefeuille, notamment les Colonies, un poste de gouverneur etc., ou des innocents heureux d'étaler leur signature dans un journal et cédant à des camaraderies de couloir ’. The Sûreté suspected the newspaper of being involved in ‘ quelques tentatives de chantage ’.

25 On 21 Dec. 1914, to discuss the contribution of the colonies to the war effort, D.C. 23 Dec. 1914.

26 Andrew, C. M. and Kanya-Forstner, A. S., ‘ The French Colonial Party and French Colonial War Aims 1914–18 ’, The Historical Journal, XVII, 1 (1974).Google Scholar

27 Letter from Perreau-Pradier to the Dépêche Coloniale, 26 Mar. 1920.

28 L'Afrique Franĉaise, Jan. 1920. The leading apostle of the mise en valeur during the war years was the industrialist Du Vivier de Streel, President of the Union Coloniale's section de l'Afrique équatoriale.

29 D.C, 9/10 Nov. 1919.

30 D.C., 17 Dec. 1919. Terrier, the secretary-general of the Comité de l'Afrique Franĉaise, predicted that Sarraut's position in the new Parliament would be as powerful as that of Etienne before the war. Terrier to Lyautey (Copy), 29 Dec. 1919, Institut de France, Terrier MSS 5903.

31 D.C., 15 Feb.–31 Mar. 1920.

32 The professions of deputies are given in the official publication of the Chambre des Députés, Notices et Portraits, 1919. For the purposes of these statistics, engineers have been counced as businessmen.

33 D.C., 14 Feb. 1920. The list of the deputies who can be identified is given in Appendix VII.

34 D.C., 4/5 Jan., 13 Feb., 14 Feb. 1920.

35 J.O. Déb. Parl. Chambre, 30 June 1920.

36 D.C., 26 Feb. 1920.

37 The fifth, Guist'hau, was a former Radical who had migrated to the nearby Gauche Républicaine Démocratique. The number of known colonialist deputies in the various political groups in 1920 (with the total membership of those groups given in brackets) was: Socialists: 3 (68); Republican Socialists: II (26); Radicals: 34 (86); Gauche Républicaine Démocratique: 23 (93); Républicains de Gauche: II (60); Action Républicaine et Sociale: 19 (46); Entente Républicaine Démocratique: 52 (183); Independents: 5 (29); deputies belonging to no group: 7 (21). In addition to these, Candace and Clerc, not mentioned in the 1920 list, had joined the Republican Socialists by 1921. The three Socialist members of the groupe colonial were Georges Barthélemy, Emile Goude and Marius Moutet. Goude and Moutet (later minister of colonies in Blum's Popular Front government) were among die most active Socialist members in the Chamber.

38 The total membership of the groupe colonial at the beginning of the 1928 Parliament is given in D.C., 30 June 1928. The number of signatories of de Warren's bill from the various political groups (with the total membership of those groups given in brackets) was: Communists: 0 (II); Socialists: 9 (106); Republican Socialists: 2 (14); Parti Socialiste Français: 1 (14); Indépendants de Gauche: 9 (26); Radicals: 23 (113); Gauche Radicale: 18 (51); Gauche Sociale et Radicale: 2 (17); Républicains de Gauche: 16 (64); Démocrates Populaires: 9 (18); Action Démocratique et Sociale: 12 (30); Union Républicaine Démocratique: 44 (85); Independents: 17 (41); deputies belonging to no group: 2 (18). J.O. Doc. Parl. Chambre, no. 4105, 21 Nov. 1930, Proposition de loi portant création d'un grand conseil national de la France d'outre-mer.

39 D.C., 25/26 Jan. 1920; J.O. Déb. Parl. Chambre, 27 Jan. 1920; L'Afriquc Française, Feb. 1920.

40 J.O. Dib. Parl. Chambre, 20 Dec. 1922, 2 July 1920.

41 J.O. Doc. Parl. Chambre, no. 6919, 28 Dec. 1923.

42 J.O. Déb. Parl. Chambre, 10 Mar. 1932. Pierre Taittinger, the president of the colonial commission, told the Chamber that the spectacular success of the Colonial Exhibition at Vincennes in 1931 had tended to divert attention from the crisis in the colonies themselves. The success of the Exhibition is a rather misleading guide to the real extent of popular enthusiasm for the colonies.

43 A smaller colonialist group, the Groupe Maroc-Tunisie, founded in 1925 by Léon Baréty, vicepresident (later president) of the Comité de l'Afrique FranfÇise, did, however, continue in being. See: D.C., 7 July 1932.

44 Royal Institute of International Affairs, Information Department Paper no. 25, The French Colonial Empire (1940), p. 20.Google Scholar

45 We should be grateful to learn of any omissions from the Appendices and for any additional information about the membership of the groupe colonial.

Sources: Minute-book of the groupe colonial, 16 June 1892, Martineau MSS; P.C., 25 Nov. 1893, 9 July 1898, 19 June 1902; Annuaire du Parlement, 1907–8; D.C., 6 Dec. 1910, 25 June 1914, 25–26 Jan. 1920, 13 Feb. 1920, 14 Feb. 1920, 25 Feb. 1920, 14 Nov. 1924, 30 June 1928.

Note: The political affiliations of the officers in the 1898 Chambre are as given in the 1901 Annuaire du Parlement.

Sources: Official list of members, minute-book of the groupe colonial, Martineau MSS 3; P.C, 22 June 1892, 28 Mar. 1893.

1 Added to the official list by Martineau.

2 Omitted from the official list but known to have attended a meeting of the groupe colonial.

3 Omitted from the official list but included on the list published in P.C, 22 June 1892.

Note: Paul Franconie, the Socialist deputy for Guyane Francaise, was included in die official list but immediately repudiated his membership. See P.C, 23 June 1892.

The political affiliations of deputies given in this Appendix were those held at the elections of 889.

1 Member of the groupe colonial in the previous legislature.

2 Named as a future member of the groupe colonial, P.C., 22 Aug. 1893.Google Scholar

3 Named as a ‘ nouvel adhérent au groupe parlementaire colonial ’;, P.C., 18 Nov. 1893.Google Scholar

4 Named as a member of the groupe colonial, P.C., 25 Nov. 1893.Google Scholar

5 Named as a member of the groupe colonial, P.C., 7 Dec. 1893.

6 Member of the groupe colonial's delegation to the Foreign Minister, 18 Jan. 1896, P.C., 21 Jan. 1896.Google Scholar

7 Signatory of the groupe colonial's amendment to increase the Foreign Ministry's Estimates for ‘ établissements français en Orient ’, 7 Feb. 1898.Google Scholar

8 Referred to by Audiffred as a former minister belonging to the groupe colonial, J.O. Déb. Parl. Chambre, 7 Feb. 1898.Google Scholar

9 Member of the Comité de l'Afrique Française.

10 Founder-member of the Comité de l'Egypte.

11 Member of the Comité de l'Egypte by Dec. 1896. Bulletin du Comité de l'Afrique Française, Jan. 1897.Google Scholar

12 Colonial deputy.

1 Member of the groupe colonial 1892–3.Google Scholar

2 Probable member of the groupe colonial, 1893–8.Google Scholar

3 Named as a member of groupe colonial in Annuaire du Parlement, 1901.Google Scholar

4 Named as a member of groupe colonial in Annuaire du Parlement, 1902.Google Scholar

The membership lists in the Annuaire du Parlement are incomplete. Among those deputies not included by the Annuaire but almost certainly members of the groupe were: Auguste Gervais, an officer of the Comité de l'Egypte before his election to parliament, a founder member of the Comité de l'Asie Française and listed by the Annuaire as a member of the groupe in the 1902 legislature; Charles Jonnart, a member of the déjeuncr du Maroc and listed by the Annuaire as a member of the groupe after the 1902 election; Jean Légitimus, Francois de Mahy and Charles Marchal, all colonial or Algerian deputies. Three other Algerian deputies, Edouard Drumont, Firmin Faure and Emile Morinaud, were elected as antisemitic nationalists and were probably not members of the groupe. Political affiliations are as given in the 1902 Annuaire.

Source: Annuaire du Parlement, 1903.

1 Member of the groupe colonial 1892–3.Google Scholar

2 Probable member of groupe colonial 1893–8.Google Scholar

3 Member of groupe colonial in legislature of 1898–1902.Google Scholar

4 Siegfried was not listed as a member of rhe groupe colonial by the Annuaire du Parlement but was named in the colonialist press as a vice-president.

1 Officer of the groupe colonial, D.C., 6 Dec. 1910.Google Scholar

2 Former officer of the groupe colonial.

3 Included in the mailing list prepared by Auguste Terrier, secretary-general of the Cotmité de l'Afrique Française, for the circulation of his book [Dec. 1910], Terrier MSS 5893.

4 Included in the mailing list prepared by Terrier for the use of Lyautey, Resident-General in Morocco [1912], Terrier MSS 5893.

5 Member of the Comité d'Action Républicainc aux Colonies and described as ‘ députê … de gauche … appartenant au parti colonial ’, D.C., 20 June 1911.

6 Member of the Comité de l'Afriquc Française.

7 Member of the Comité de l'Asie Française.

8 Known to have been a member of the groupe colonial in a previous legislature.

9 Colonial deputy.

10 Former colonial governor or governor-general.

11 Regular contributor on colonial questions to Les Annales Coloniales.

Note: Additional relevant information is available on many of the deputies listed above. Ballande was one of the founders of the Union Coloniale Française and later of the post-war groupe colonial. Chaumet later became president of the Ligue Maritime et Coloniale. Barthou was president, and Leygues vice-president of the Comité de l'Orient. Thomson was Etienne's closest associate in the Chamber and invariably supported causes championed by Etienne. We have omitted a number of possible names from this list: three members of the Comité d'Action Républicaine aux Colonies whose interest in the colonies seems to have been largely confined to the spread of lay education, and several occasional contributors to the Annales Coloniales.