The French government has decided to submit to the Consultative Assembly its projected ordinance for the restitution to their original owners of properties and enterprises seized from Jews and others under the Vichy racial laws. That intention was contained today in a communique issued after a meeting of the cabinet.
According to the Ministry of Information, the ordinance “concerns the category of the property confiscated by the Vichy government or the German authorities, and ceded to acquirers who did not always act in bad faith.” The text going to the Consultative Assembly in virtually the same as the draft recently prepared by the Ministry of Finance and which was severely criticized by some of those who studied it on grounds that it made recovery of property by the original owners a long and difficult process, and because it established the rights of the Vichy acquirers, which had been denied them by the present government before the liberation.
There have been certain amendments of this draft to meet some of these objections but it is understood that they do not affect the basic principles of the measure. According to Foliz Gouin, president of the Consultative Assembly, the measure will come up for action within the month. It is generally expected, however, that in its present form it will have rough handling in that body, and that further amendments may be required to meet objections within the assembly.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
