Marius Moutet | |
|---|---|
 Moutet in 1933 | |
| Minister of the Colonies | |
| In office 13 March 1938 – 10 April 1938 | |
| Prime Minister | |
| Preceded by | Théodore Steeg |
| Succeeded by | Georges Mandel |
| In office 4 June 1936 – 18 January 1938 | |
| Prime Minister |
|
| Preceded by | Jacques Stern |
| Succeeded by | Théodore Steeg |
| Member of theChamber of Deputies | |
| In office July 1914 – 1928 | |
| Constituency | Lyon,Vaise |
| In office 13 January 1929 – ? | |
| Preceded by | Jules Nadi |
| Constituency | Drôme |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1876-04-19)19 April 1876 Nîmes, France |
| Died | 29 October 1968(1968-10-29) (aged 92) Paris, France |
| Political party | |
| Other political affiliations | Popular Front |
| Alma mater |
|
| Profession | Lawyer |
Marius Moutet (19 April 1876 – 29 October 1968) was a French Socialist diplomat and colonial adviser. An expert in colonial issues,[1] he served asMinister of the Colonies for four terms in the 1930s and 1940s and was president of the General council of the Drôme department after the war until 1951. He was sympathetic toHo Chi Minh and advocated the independence of Vietnam. At the age of 92, Moutet was the oldest member of theSenate of France and theFrench Assembly.
Moutet was born inNîmes, Gard in 1876. He came from a mixed Protestant-Catholic family ofRhône valley wine merchants.[2] He studied at the Lycée ofMacon and then at theLycée Henri IV, in Paris.[3] He was a member of theSocialist Students inLyon, and theIndependent Socialists in 1895.
After becoming a lawyer, he was a delegate from theRhône department to the second organization of French socialists' congress held inWagram in September 1900.[4] Five years later, he was a delegate from the same department to the founding convention of theFrench Section of the Workers' International.
In July 1914, with the support ofJean Jaurès during his candidacy, Moutet was elected as a member of theChamber of Deputies, representing theVaise neighbourhood ofLyon. During theFirst World War, in May 1917, he was appointed byAristide Briand to convince the new Russian government, led byAlexander Kerensky, to continue the war on the side of France and Britain. The same year, he supportedJoseph Caillaux before theHigh Court of Justice.
Moutet was a member of the Central Committee of theInternational Federation for Human Rights in 1918–1936, as Honorary Minister 1936–1939, 1939–1940, 1945–1947. He was re-elected deputy again for Rhône in 1919 and 1924, but was defeated in 1928 by theRepublican-Socialist Party candidate.[5] On 13 January 1929, he was elected to represent theDrôme department, replacingJules Nadi, who had died.[6] He became a specialist on questions related to theFrench colonial empire, advocating a generous policy of assimilation, opposing brutal repression and condescending paternalism.[7] He was an advocate for independence inVietnam and friendly towardsHo Chi Minh.[7]
Moutet served as Minister of the Colonies in thePopular Front governments of 1936 to 1938 underLéon Blum government andCamille Chautemps.[8][9] Moutet later expressed criticism of the Popular Front.[8] Moutet faced difficult colonial issues such as removing the prisons inFrench Guiana. To improve the plight of colonized peoples, he removed theIndigénat Code of its substance in the years 1936 and 1937, and completely repealed it on 6 April 1938. He ordered the colonial administrators to view famine not as inevitable but as a scourge to be combated following the survey from June 1936 to February 1937. He stepped up initiatives to associate the colonized people to the administration within their territory. He called for the first time that a black resident,Félix Éboué, become Governor of theGuadeloupe and theFrench Equatorial Africa.[10] He voted for amnesty and the independence of Vietnam.[7]
On 14 May 1939, at the Congress of the federation of French Section of the Workers' International which met at Drôme, he stated that "every concession (to the Axis Powers) brings us closer to war." Moutet was one ofthe Eighty, a group of deputies who refused to grant full authority toPhilippe Pétain on 10 July 1940. He subsequently went underground and took refuge in Switzerland from 1941 to avoid arrest,[11] with one of his sons being confined to his place inVals-les-Bains by theVichy government in retaliation.
At the end of the war, he was re-elected to the Drôme department in the twoConstitutional conventions in 1945, and was elected to theCouncil of the Republic.[12] He was president of the General council of Drôme until 1951. He held theMinister of Overseas France position underFélix Gouin,Georges Bidault, Blum's third government, andPaul Ramadier. He negotiated withHo Chi Minh and founded Le fonds d'investissement des départements d'outre-mer (FIDOM) (Investment Fund for Economic and Social territories overseas). From 1947, he was in theFrench Sudan, and that year he attempted to pass theCode du travail by decree before he left office in November.[13] As a parliamentarian, he worked for peace in theParliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, theAssembly of the Western European Union and theInter-Parliamentary Union. He served for the Drôme department from 1948, first in the Council of the Republic under the Fourth Republic, and then in the Senate under the Fifth Republic up his death.
At the age of 92, Moutet was the oldest member of theSenate of France and theFrench Assembly.[14] At the initiative ofJean Besson, senator from the Drôme, the Cahier de l'Institut Marius Moutet – Centre d'histoire de Sciences Po is an institute of contemporary history that bears his name. Freddy Martin-Rosset, mayor ofÉpinouze, published a biography covering Moutet's political career in the Drôme,L'itinéraire politique drômois de Marius Moutet (2012).
Moutet was twice married.[15] His first wife was Anna Matoussevitch (d. 1926), aRussian fromMinsk, whom he met in Lyon where she was studying medicine; they had two sons, Jacques Moutet (1900–1951) and Gustave Moutet (1901–1987), and a daughter, Marianne Moutet Basch (1904–2000). His second wife was Magdeleine Vérilhac (d. 1975); they had a son, Philippe Moutet (1928–2003). Moutet also had two other children, Michel Moutet and Aimée Moutet.[2]Anne-Elisabeth Moutet is his granddaughter.
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