Date sent: Wed, 19 Jul 1995
>From William B. Cohen, Indiana University
<cohenw@indiana.edu>
Somewhat connected to the query about Moroccan troops; an article in the
*Journal of Modern History* some 15 years or so back showed that the
French occupying the Ruhr in 1923 purposely used black troops, knowing
that would particularly horrify and humiliate the Germans.
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Editor's Note:
In this context it is also important
to remember that at the end of World
War One the French had especially
depleted manpower and, at the armestic
one-half of all effective troops in
the field were colonial battalions.
In many ways, the French had no options
but to use colonial--largely African--
soldiers in the oocupation.
The accusations about French intent
are also very old, made not only in
Germany but also in Britain. The chief
proponents of that view in the U.K.
were E.D. Morel and his fellow members
of the post-war Union of Democratic
Control. And somewhat later, Hitler
was equally vociferous in his
denunciation of French intentions in
*Mein Kampf* and other Nazi writings.
mep
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