A formal denial of reports which had quoted Gen. Giraud as stating that the Jewish question in North Africa is “an internal affair” of the French administration, has been issued in Algiera, it was reported here today.
The report says that Gen. Giraud, when interviewed by journalists, told them that certain questions concerning local life in North Africa are not of interest to the outside world. Some journalists interpreted this declaration as applying especially to the question of anti-Jewish laws. “This interpretation was the subject of an official denial in Algiera,” the report asserts.
Meanwhile, it was announced in Algiers that the new War Committee set up by Gen. Giraud has acted to ameliorate the conditions of the Jews in North Africa. The committee has decided that Jews may enlist in the French armed forces and has confirmed the steps announced last week to restore property confiscated from Jews by the Vichy administrators and to readmit Jewish children to primary and secondary schools. However, the committee has not yet acted to readmit hundreds of Jews barred from the professions, the Algiers report indicates, but merely announced that the question was “under consideration.”
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