Gabriel Ferdinand Alapetite (5 January 1854 – 22 March 1932) was a French senior civil servant and diplomat. From 1879 to 1906 he was sub-prefect or prefect of various departments of France. For eleven years from 1906 to 1918 he was Resident-General of France in Tunisia, where he initiated various administrative improvements. He considered that the Tunisian Muslims had an utterly different mentality from French people, and could never become citizens of France. He was violently antisemitic, and opposed recruiting Tunisian Jews during World War I (1914–18). After the war he was briefly French Ambassador in Madrid, then for four years administered Alsace-Lorraine, which had been returned from Germany to France.

Early years

Gabriel Alapetite was born on 5 January 1854 in

Clamecy, Nièvre Clamecy () is a commune in the Nièvre department in central France. Clamecy is the capital of an arrondissement in the department of Nièvre, at the confluence of the Yonne and Beuvron and on the Canal du Nivernais, N.N.E. of Nevers. Clame ...

. He came from an old republican family. His parents were Marien Ferdinand Alapetite (1821–95) and Alphonsine Janiska (1832–91). His siblings were Jeanne Marie Alapetite (1852–1918) and Emile Marien Alapetite (1856–1911). Gabriel Alapetite qualified as a lawyer in Paris in 1873. He began practice as a lawyer with Théodore Tenaille-Saligny as his political mentor. Tenaille-Saligny was named Prefect of Pas-de-Calais in 1876, then Prefect of

Haute-Garonne Haute-Garonne (; oc, Nauta Garona, ; en, Upper Garonne) is a department in the Occitanie region of Southwestern France. Named after the river Garonne, which flows through the department. Its prefecture and main city is Toulouse, the country' ...

, and appointed Alapetite his ''chef de cabinet''. Alapetite was chef de cabinet in Pas-de-Calais from December 1876 to May 1877 and in Haute-Garonne from December 1877 to February 1879.

Administrator in France

Tenaille-Saligny became a Senator from 1879 to 1888, while Alapetite followed a standard administrative progression. He proved extremely able and advanced rapidly. He was in turn Sub-Prefect of

Muret Muret (; in Gascon Occitan ''Murèth'') is a commune in the Haute-Garonne department, of which it is a subprefecture, in the Occitanie region of southwestern France. Its inhabitants are called ''Muretains''. It is an outer suburb of the ci ...

from 25 March 1879,

Loudun Loudun (; ; Poitevin: ''Loudin'') is a commune in the Vienne department and the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, western France. It is located south of the town of Chinon and 25 km to the east of the town Thouars. The area south of Loudun ...

from 11 November 1880 and Châtellerault from 21 October 1883. He was made Secretary-General of

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...

on 25 April 1885. Alapetite was appointed Prefect of Indre on 20 June 1888. He was only 34 at this time, very young for such a responsible position. He was appointed Prefect of

Sarthe Sarthe () is a department of the French region of Pays de la Loire, and the province of Maine, situated in the '' Grand-Ouest'' of the country. It is named after the river Sarthe, which flows from east of Le Mans to just north of Angers. It ha ...

on 1 December 1888, then Prefect of

Puy-de-Dôme Puy-de-Dôme (; oc, label=Auvergnat, lo Puèi de Doma or ''lo Puèi Domat'') is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in the centre of France. In 2019, it had a population of 662,152.Pas-de-Calais on 8 January 1890. On 14 September 1894 the miners in the Pas de Calais started a general strike. Gabriel Alapetite acted tactfully but decisively to prevent disturbances, as he had in similar circumstances two years earlier, and only one person died during the strike. He played a balancing act in correcting the initiatives of the Ministry of Public Works, the Ministry of the Interior, the President of the Council and the Ministry of War. He convinced the President of the Council to threaten to withdraw troops from the mining basin, and this persuaded the companies to accept negotiations. As prefect, Alapetite was a faithful ally of the political leader

Alexandre Ribot Alexandre-Félix-Joseph Ribot (; 7 February 184213 January 1923) was a French politician, four times Prime Minister. Early career Ribot was born in Saint-Omer, Pas-de-Calais. After a brilliant academic career at the University of Paris, where h ...

. Alapetite was Prefect of Rhône from 1900 to 1906.

Resident-General in Tunisia

Alapetite was Resident-General in Tunisia from 1906 to 1918. Shortly after he took up his post, the Tunisian Consultative Conference was expanded to include Muslim and Jewish representatives for the first time. In Tunisia he developed public works, supported colonization and improved finance and education. He created provident funds and developed agricultural cooperation, which reduced scarcity and famine. Alapetite wanted to improve treatment of the mentally ill. He wrote that "the moral conquest of the native through medical welfare is a long-term effort" to advance the interests of France in North Africa. Alapetite inaugurated a monument with a bust of the geologist Philippe Thomas by the sculptor

André César Vermare André-César Vermare (27 November 1869 – 7 August 1949) was a French sculptor, known for his war memorials and monuments. Biography Vermare was the son of the sculptor Pierre Vermare. He entered the École nationale des beaux-arts in Lyon i ...

Sfax Sfax (; ar, صفاقس, Ṣafāqis ) is a city in Tunisia, located southeast of Tunis. The city, founded in AD849 on the ruins of Berber Taparura, is the capital of the Sfax Governorate (about 955,421 inhabitants in 2014), and a Mediterrane ...

on 26 April 1913. Thomas had discovered large deposits of phosphates of lime, which had greatly helped the Tunisian economy. Alapetite inaugurated another monument in honour of Thomas in Tunis on 29 May 1913. M 69 page de garde

During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

(1914–18) in December 1914 Alapetite wrote that German and Ottoman propaganda was convincing the ''

tirailleur A tirailleur (), in the Napoleonic era, was a type of light infantry trained to skirmish ahead of the main columns. Later, the term "''tirailleur''" was used by the French Army as a designation for indigenous infantry recruited in the French ...

s'' that "the Commander of Believers forbids them to go and get themselves killed for the infidels." Alapetite was opposed to letting indigenous soldiers return home, either as convalescents or on leave. Sending wounded men home would demoralize their families, and men on leave would exaggerate the dangers and hardships of total warfare in the cold climate of northern France. He did not feel that Tunisians should be treated in the same way as French people, since the Tunisian Muslims had a different mentality. He wrote, "it is dangerous to make of this affair a question of principle or sentiment." Alapetite sent Muslim notaries to assist Tunisian soldiers and help with burial rites, but found it very difficult to find an imam to minister to the soldiers at the front. Alapetite strongly opposed sending Muslim troops to the Dardanelles during the Gallipoli Campaign, where they would be fighting against Muslims, and this view prevailed. Later, North African troops did fight the Ottomans in the Middle East. In 1915 Alapetite opposed giving Tunisian soldiers French citizenship. He wrote, "in Tunisia, the naturalized French Muslim appears as an uprooted apostate." He said that naturalizing the Muslims would be an indirect annexation and would violate the treaties France had made with the

Bey of Tunis Bey ( ota, بك, beğ, script=Arab, tr, bey, az, bəy, tk, beg, uz, бек, kz, би/бек, tt-Cyrl, бәк, translit=bäk, cjs, пий/пек, sq, beu/bej, sh, beg, fa, بیگ, beyg/, tg, бек, ar, بك, bak, gr, μπέης) is ...

. After his retirement Alapetite wrote, "Long experience with Oriental Muslims only allows the European to understand one precise fact about their mentality: that their brain does not reason like ours." Alapetite was deeply antisemitic, as was typical of the French administration in Tunisia. In the fall of 1916

Pierre Roques Pierre Auguste Roques (28 December 1856 – 26 February 1920) was a French general and creator of the French air force. Biography Born to a modest family in Marseillan, Hérault, his lively intelligence earned him a study grant that allowed hi ...

, Minister of War, wrote to Alapetite suggesting that as part of the drive to recruit natives troops for 1917 it might be sensible to call Tunisian Jews to arms. Alapetite wrote a long reply in which he rejected the idea. He said that conscripting Tunisian Jews would be equivalent to granting them French citizenship, and this would provoke the Muslims. If Jews were recruited, France would lose proven Muslim troops for the sake of a Jewish force "that all the current data permits us to consider as mediocre in every regard." He saw the Tunisian Jews as clannish, ungenerous, exploitative and even "parasitic." He wrote, "Until the present, political power has escaped the Jews in Tunisia, it is the only force they lack. They know well that if they have it, the enslavement of the Muslim natives won't be long in coming."

Later career

Gabriel Alapetite was French Ambassador in Madrid from 1918 to 1920. Alapetite was French Commissioner General in Strasbourg, Alsace-Lorraine, from 1920 to 1924. Alapetite replaced

Alexandre Millerand Alexandre Millerand (; – ) was a French politician. He was Prime Minister of France from 20 January to 23 September 1920 and President of France from 23 September 1920 to 11 June 1924. His participation in Waldeck-Rousseau's cabinet at the s ...

as Commissioner General. As a career bureaucrat he did not have the vision or political skills of his predecessor. He had to deal with labour tensions, disputes over language and religion, difficulties implementing French law and difficulties with Alsatian civil servants. Although Alapetite was willing to make compromises, he could not satisfy the expectations of the Alsatians, and the transfer of powers from his office to the ministries in Paris served to weaken his position. In 1920 Alapetite stated before a regional consultative assembly that he hoped Alsatians would learn one new French word each day, and forget one German word. Members of the

Harvard Glee Club The Harvard Glee Club is a 60-voice, Tenor-Bass choral ensemble at Harvard University. Founded in 1858 in the tradition of English and American glee clubs, it is the oldest collegiate chorus in the United States. The Glee Club is part of the H ...

visited Strasbourg on

Bastille Day Bastille Day is the common name given in English-speaking countries to the national day of France, which is celebrated on 14 July each year. In French, it is formally called the (; "French National Celebration"); legally it is known as (; "t ...

on 14 July 1921. Prompted by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who wanted to impress the foreign visitors, Alapetite arranged for an exhibition of traditional Alsatian dress at Orangerie Park with over 400 participants to "make these seventy American delegates aware of happy Alsace, French Alsace." Gabriel Alapetite died on 22 March 1932 in Paris aged 78.

Honours

Alapetite was decorated with the

Ordre des Palmes Académiques A suite, in Western classical music and jazz, is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral/ concert band pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes and grew in scope to comprise up to five dances, sometimes with ...

on 12 July 1884. He was named Knight of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

on 3 August 1890, Officer of the Legion of Honour on 7 January 1894 and Commander of the Legion of Honour on 26 January 1906. Gabriel Alapetite was elected a full member of the Académie des Sciences Coloniales in 1926.

Early years

Administrator in France

Resident-General in Tunisia

Later career

Honours

Publications

Notes

Sources

Further reading