French Government May Dissolve Bodies Opposing Restoration of Property to Jews

The French Government is now considering a motion introduced in the Consultative Assembly by representatives of the Front National for the dissolution of two organizations established to protect the interests of purchasers of Jewish property confiscated under the Vichy anti-Jewish laws and administrators of Jewish enterprises named by the Vichy regime.

The motion was sponsored in the Assembly by Juliot Curie, Father Phillipe and others. It charges the two organizations with conducting violent anti-Jewish agitation. The decision of the French Government may be communicated to the Assembly in the course of its present session which closes tomorrow.

There are two interpellations with regard to the same question pending on the agenda of the Assembly. The first was made by Florimond Bonte, a Communist, who accuses the organizations – the National Inter-Corporative Association, and the Association of Administrators of France – of “opposing the restoration of Republican justice.” In addition to fighting the restoration of Jewish property to the rightful owners, he said, these organizations are seeking to have Vichy-named administrators retain their privileges. He therefore demands the immediate dissolution of the organizations and the arrest of racist provocateurs.

The second interpellation was made by Louis Nogueres, a Socialist, who, raising the same question, asked the Minister of Justice what measures he is taking against the administrators and acquirers of Jewish property who are organizing themselves to defend “what in scorn of all justice and human dignity, they dare to call their rights.”