Colour-blind France? colonial workers during the first world war

William B. Cohen , The French Encounter with Africans (Bloomington, IN, 1980); Cathie Lloyd and Hazel Waters , 'France: one culture, one people?', Race & Class (Vol.32, no.3, 1991). On African Americans in France, see Michel Fabre, La rive noire ( Paris, 1985); Phyllis Rose , Jazz Cleopatra (New York, 1989).

See, for example, Gerard Noiriel , Le creuset français ( Paris, 1988). Probably the most comprehensive statement of this perspective, concerning immigrant workers in Europe as a whole, is to be found in Stephen Castles and Godula Kosack, Immigrant Workers and Class Structure in Western Europe ( London, 1973).

Gary Cross , Immigrant Workers in Industrial France (Philadelphia , 1983); Bertrand Nogaro and Lucien Weil , La main d'oeuvre etrangère et coloniale pendant la guerre (Paris, 1926); John Horne , 'Immigrant workers in France during World War I', French Historical Studies (Vol.XIV, no. 1, 1985); Jean Vidalenc , 'La main d'oeuvre etrangère en France et la première guerre mondiale '. Francia (Vol.2, 1974).

Charles Ageron , Les Algeriens musulmans et la France, 1871-1919, 2 vols (Paris, 1968), vol.II, p.1158; Mireille Favre , 'Un milieu porteur de modernisation: travailleurs et tirailleurs vietnamiens en France pendant la première guerre mondiale' (thèse de doctorate, 2 vols, École Nationale des Chartes, Paris, 1986), vol.I, pp.47-52; Nogaro and Weil, op.cit, pp. 18-19; P. Wou , Les traveilleurs chinois et la grande guerre (Paris, 1939). On the Truptil mission, see the documents in the Archives Nationales [hereafter AN], series F 14 11334, from February 1917.

Nogaro and Weil , op.cit, p.25.

Horne , op.cit, pp.68-75.

Ageron , op.cit, vol.11, 1158; Archives Nationales Section Outre Mer [hereafter ANSOM], Direction des Services Militaires, Carton 5, decree of 31 January 1917. I would like to thank Mme Dominique Taff for her assistance in gaining access to this source.

Cited in Favre , op.cit, vol.I, p.241.

Service historique de l'armée de terre [hereafter SHAT], 7 N 997, letter from Rakotomango, July-August 1917.

Favre , op.cit, vol.I, pp.241-57.

SHAT 7 N 1001, letter from Belkacem ben Dieb to Abdallah Ben Ahmed, March 1918.

Favre , op.cit, vol.I, pp.201-30; Ageron , op.cit, vol.II, pp.1158-9; Augustin Bernard , L'Afrique du Nord pendant la guerre (Paris, 1926), pp.4-5. There were also major anti-French riots in China during late 1916 and early 1917, in both Tientsin and Shanghai. As in Algeria, one cause seems to have been the rumour that men recruited for labour would actually be used as soldiers. AN AP 94 135, report of 17 February 1917 .

Nogaro and Weil , op.cit, pp.18-25, 43-9; Horne , op.cit, pp.61-2; Cross , op.cit, pp.34-44. Many of the minutes for CIMO meetings are contained in AN F 14 11334.

Nogaro and Weil , op.cit, pp.32-5; Cross , op.cit, pp.38-9.

Horne , op.cit, p.66; Cross, op.cit, p.40.

Nogaro and Weil , op.cit, pp.18-24; Cross , op.cit, pp.34-6; Vidalenc , op.cit, pp.535-8 ; Favre , op.cit, vol.II, pp.425-63. For archival sources on the regimentation system, see AN F 14 11331, 11332, 11334; AN 94 AP 135, 140; SHAT 5 N 134, 6 N 149, 7 N 144, 17 N 156.

Nogaro and Weil , op.cit, pp.5-9; Ageron , vol.II, op.cit , p.1158; Favre , vol.I, op.cit, pp.93-102.

Wou , op.cit, pp.17-22; AN F 14 11334, 'Documents sur le recrutement d'ouvriers chinois', CIMO, 19pp., 24 February 1917.

AN 94 AP 135, report of 10 December 1915, pp.32-3.

AN F 14 11334, report of 26 May 1917, p.3; SHAT 7 N 1001, letter from Sadok-ed-Dakak to Ahmed Soula, 21 July 1916; ANSOM SLOTFOM I, carton 8, December 1917.

AN 94 AP 135, 'Note relative au recrutement de la main-d'ouevre coloniale Nord-Africaine et Chinoise', 16 August 1916.

AN F 14 1134, letters of 9 April 1918, 14 October 1918.

AN 94 AP 135, report by Inspector Salles, 5 March 1916; SHAT 10 N 63, report of 23 January 1917.

Nogaro and Weil , op.cit, p.25. These percentages are based upon statistics from 1 October 1918.

SHAT 10 N 63, report of M. Cazeneuve, 20 June 1917, p.3.

Ansom Slotfom 10, carton 2, 'Rapport sur le groupement de travailleurs indochinois ', 23 May 1917.

SHAT 10 N 63, Cazeneuve report, pp.5-6, letter of Dr Bergeret.

SHAT 7 N 1001, letters from Mohammed Baccouch, Sadek ben Mohamed and Driss Cherif, June 1917; letter from E. Sadok, March 1918.

AN F 14 11331, letter of 2 February 1918.

Ibid., letter of 1 February 1918.

Ibid., 'Interdiction de frapper en aucun cas les travailleurs Chinois et Coloniaux', I March 1918; SHAT 7 N 997, letter from Son, August 1917.

Shat 7 N. 1001, letter from Ali ben Ismail to Abdel-Aziz, December 1917. On the postal commissions and the letters of colonial workers, see Horne , op.cit ; Favre , op.cit, vol.II, pp.467-502.

SHAT 17 N 157, letter of 2 March 1918; AN 94 AP 140, telephone messages of 5 and 17 July 1917.

Noiriel , op.cit, pp.258-62; Michelle Perrot , 'Les rapports entre ouvriers frangais et etrangers (1871-1893)', Bulletin de la Société d'histoire moderne (1960).

AN 94 AP 135, report of 16 August 1916. See also various reports contained in the CIMO files in AN F 14 11334.

SHAT 7 N 144, report of 20 February 1916; SHAT 17 N 156, reports of 27 April and 12 May 1918; AN F 14 11331, letters of 14 September, 21 September and 22 October 1917, 8 February, 17 April, 10 July, 22 August and 11 December 1918.

SHAT 7 N 997, 'Rapport Mensuel', July-August 1917.

On French imperial images of indigenous Third World peoples , see Cohen , op.cit; William Schneider , An Empire for the Masses: the French popular image of Africa, 1870-1900 (London, 1982); Raymond Betts , Assimilation and Association in French Colonial Theory (New York, 1961); Thomas August , The Selling of the Empire ( London, 1985 ); Ada Martinkus-Zemp , Le blanc et le noir (Paris , 1975).

AN F 14 11331, report of 24 June 1918; SHAT 17 N 156, letter of 20 October 1918.

AN 94 AP 135, report of 16 August 1916, p.19.

ANSOM SLOTFOM 10, carton 2, reports of 27 August 1916, 28 May 1917; SLOTFOM 1, carton 8, report of February 1918; SHAT 7 N 1001, letter from Sadok to Sadok Lageldi, 13 November 1917, letter from Ali ben Ammar to El-Acharri ben Mrad, 25 December 1917.

AN F 14 11334, report of 7 July 1917.

Cited in Vidalenc , op.cit, p.540. The month before, M. Cauet , secretary general of the union, declared that it was humiliating for French workers to be forced to train those (Indochinese) of an inferior race. SHAT 6 N 149, letter of 29 January 1918.

ANSOM SLOTFOM 10, carton 2, reports of 26 July and 4 September 1917; ANSOM DSM, carton 5, reports of 19 and 20 June 1917; SHAT 7 N 997, letter from Cang Xuong to Sang, August 1917, report of August 1917; AN 94 AP 135, telephone messages of 22 January and 19 June 1917; AN F 14 11334, report of 9 June 1917.

See the numerous reports contained in ANSOM DSM cartons 5 and 6; also Favre , op.cit, vol.II, pp.508-23; Horne , op.cit, pp.84-6.

ANSOM DSM, carton 5, reports of 20 June 1917 by Temsil and Benaich; ANSOM SLOTFOM 10, carton 2, reports of 25 July, 30 July, 1 August, and 10 August 1917.

ANSOM SLOTFOM 10, carton 2, 'Groupement des travailleurs indochinois de Saint-Medard-en-Jalles', report for the month of September 1917.

ANSOM SLOTFOM 1, carton 8, 'Contrôle postal malgache', February 1918. In their correspondence colonial workers commented frequently on their relations with French women.,

AN F 14 11331, letter of 21 March 1918.

Cross , op.cit, p.123. On the extraordinarily thorough repatriation of the Indochinese, see Favre , op.cit, vol.II.

Cross , op.cit; Georges Mauco , Les étrangers en France (Paris, 1932 ).