Le Figaro
- Franco-Spanish relations in Morocco and the status of Tangier
- The Italian press's unjustified attacks on France
- The social problem of suburban subdivisions
Le Figaro examines reports that Spain might link its position in the Rif to possession of Tangier. Its diplomatic report combines French congratulations to Mussolini for surviving an attack with a protest against an Italian newspaper's accusations. At home, an essay argues that suburban subdivisions should be understood as the expansion of Paris, using the scale of migration to demand a broader social perspective. These selected passages preserve the difference between reported intentions, official representations and editorial argument.
Translation
Franco-Spanish relations in Morocco and the status of Tangier
Numerous reports have appeared in the press in recent days according to which Spain, once again demanding exclusive possession of Tangier, would link this annexation to its permanent establishment in the Rif. In other words, if Tangier were not handed over to it outright, Spain would evacuate the zone it has occupied since the successful outcome of the 1926 operations and confine itself to its coastal strongholds.
The Italian press's unjustified attacks on France
The French chargé d’affaires protests in Rome against the article in the Giornale d’Italia.
From Geneva, Foreign Minister Aristide Briand sent Mussolini congratulations on escaping the attempt on his life.
Meanwhile, the French chargé d’affaires in Rome, M. Roger, approached the head of the prime minister’s office and asked him to convey France’s warm congratulations to Mussolini. He also protested against the Giornale d’Italia article, adding that he hoped the Italian government would take steps to prevent public opinion from being misled: although the would-be assassin came from France, he was nonetheless an Italian subject.
The social problem of suburban subdivisions
All around Paris—in the Seine department, in Seine-et-Marne, but above all in Seine-et-Oise—a flowering of new settlements surrounds the capital. These settlements are called subdivisions. That name alone betrays how inadequately a problem of immense importance is being considered, interpreted and resolved. To give the problem its proper name, we should call it the expansion of Paris. At once, all its elements would acquire their true weight and reveal their implications.
In reality, a prodigious migration is taking place. In Seine-et-Oise alone, the demographic transformation involves, or will involve within ten years, a population estimated at 150,000 to 200,000 people: the equivalent of a large city.
Context
Tangier was more than a piece of Moroccan territory
Tangier had an international administration distinct from the French and Spanish zones in Morocco. Its status involved diplomatic representation, shipping and commercial rights, which brought countries beyond France and Spain into the dispute. An American memorandum of August 27 records Spain’s wish to absorb it into the Spanish zone. That wider web of interests explains why a bargaining position about the Rif could become a question for several powers rather than a simple bilateral land transfer.
An assassination attempt becomes a diplomatic dispute
France’s response combined sympathy for Mussolini with a refusal to accept blame for the attacker’s departure from French territory. The distinction between where a person had come from and whose national he was lies at the heart of the protest. By 1926 Mussolini’s government was consolidating a fascist dictatorship. In that setting, the French appeal to the government to restrain misleading press attacks made the handling of public opinion itself a diplomatic issue.
A suburb is not just a collection of building plots
The housing essay challenges the scale at which Paris’s growth was being discussed. “Subdivision” suggests separate property transactions; “expansion of Paris” asks readers to think about the movement of a city-sized population beyond the capital. The projected 150,000 to 200,000 people in one surrounding department is the hinge of that argument. Growth outside the familiar city boundary demanded attention as an urban transformation, not merely as a series of new estates.
Original
franco -espagnole au Maroc et le statut de Tanger
franco -espagnole au Maroc
et le statut de Tanger
De nombreuses informations ont pa-
ru ces jours-ci dans la presse, d'après
lesquelles l'Espagne, réclamant une
fois de plus la possession exclusive de
Tanger, lierait cette annexion'à son
installation définitive dans le Rif,
c'est-à-dire que, si Tanger ne lui était
pas remise en toute propriété, elle éva.
cuerait la zone qu'elle occupé depuis
l'heureuse issue des opérations de
1926, pour se confiner dans ses « pre-
sidios» de la côte.
Les attaques injustifiées de la presse italienne contre la Frajnce
Les attaques injustifiées
de la presse italienne
contre la Frajnce
Le chargé d'affaires de France
proteste à Rome ̃ contre: l'article
du « Giarnale d'italia »
n.
De Genève, M. Aristide Briand, minis-
tre des affaires étrangères, a adressé à M.
Mussolini ses félicitations pour avoir
échappé à l'attentat dirigé contre lui.
D'autre part, le' chargé d'affaires de
France à Rome, M. -Roger, a fait auprès
du chef du cabinet du président du Con-
seil une démarche pour le prier de pré-
senter de la part de la, France à M. Musso-
lini .toutes ses. félicitations. Il a/en même
temps protesté, contre l'article du Gior-
nale d'Italidj ajoutant qu'il espérait que
le- gouvernement, italien prendrait des me-
sures pour ne pas laisser ̃̃ s'égarer l'opi-
nion publkpie, car si l'auteur de l'attentat
est venu de France, il n'ea est pas moins
sujet italien.
LE PROBLEME SOCIAL- DES LOTISSEMENTS
LE PROBLEME SOCIAL-
DES LOTISSEMENTS
Tout auteur de Paris, dans le dépar-
tement de la Seine, en Seine-et-Marne
mais en Seine-et-Oise surtout
une floraison d'agglomérations nouvel-
les enveloppe la capitale. On appelle ces
agglomérations les lotissements. Ce-
la seul trahit l'insuffisance avec la-
quelle un problème d'une importance
considérable est envisagé, interprété,
résolu. -Si l'on donnait à ce problème
son vrai nom, il faudrait l'appeler
l'extension de Paris. Aussitôt tous les
éléments qui le, composent prendraient
;leur valeur et accuseraient leur portée.
En, ,r éalitéi, il s'agit, d'une prodigieuse
migration. Dans le seul département de
Seinè?et-Oise, la transformation démo-
graphique qui se produit porte (ou por-
tera d'ici dix ans) sur un chiffre de po-
pulation qu'on peut évaluer de 150 à
200.000 individus. L'équivalent d'une
grande ville.