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Science and French Colonial Policy. Creation of the ORSTOM: From the Popular Front to the Liberaton via Vichy, 1936–1943

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Science and Technology in a Developing World

Part of the book series: Sociology of the Sciences ((SOSC,volume 19))

Abstract

On 25 September 1937, the Popular Front government instituted a Council for French Overseas Territories/Conseil de la France d’Outre-Mer (CFOM), within the Higher Council for Scientific Research/Conseil Supérieur de la Recherche Scientifique (CSRS),1 which was to be responsible for coordinating and steering scientific research in or on France’s Colonies. While the CFOM was formally maintained when, in October 1939, the National Center for Scientific Research/Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) replaced the CSRS, it was “forgotten” at the time when Vichy confirmed the CNRS in March 1941. Instead, an Office for Colonial Scientific Research/Office de la Recherche Scientifique Coloniale (ORSC) was created by an arrêté (official decision at the ministerial level) of 19 November 1942, and then reorganized and strengthened by the law of 11 October 1943. Attached to the Ministry of the Colonies and therefore separate from the CNRS, the ORSC was nevertheless presided by the director of the CNRS. The ORSC would be confirmed, unchanged in form, on 25 November 1944 after the Liberation.2

We would like to thank Denise Ogilvie, archivist at the Pasteur Institute, for allowing us to consult these records despite the service being in the midst of moving. We are also heavily indebted to Hélène Launay, in charge of the documentation for the fiftieth anniversary of the ORSTOM, and in particular for much of the source work.

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Notes

  1. The CSRS had been responsible for steering research since April 1933. Its mandate was expanded by the Popular Front. which also saw the existence of a Secretary of State’s Office for Scientific Research, occupied successively by Irène Joliot-Curie (June to September 1936) and then by Jean Perrin (October 1936 to June 1937). The CSRS was devoted essentially to basic research conducted in its own laboratories or in university laboratories, and to the recruitment of researchers. Alongside this institution, the Caisse Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique, created in October 1935, managed the available credits. A Service Central de la Recherche Scientifique within the National Education Ministry took care of the administrative implementation. In May 1938, to reinforce the “scientific mobilization” for economic recovery and national defense, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Appliquée (CNRSA) was created, supported by a “Haut Comité de Coordination de la Recherche Scientifique et Technique”, presided by Jean Perrin. The CSRS, the CNRSA, the Caisse and the Service Central merged on 19 October 1939 to make up the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). See: Jean-François Picard (1990), La République des savants. La Recherche française et le CNRS (Paris, Flammarion).

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  2. The Office de la Recherche Scientifique Coloniale (ORSC) changed its name to the Office de la Recherche Scientifique Outre-Mer (ORSOM) on 28 August 1949, and became the ORSTOM (a change of structure and goals, addition of the “T” — “et Technique”) on 17 November 1953.

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  3. Michel Margairaz agreed with this choice of a chronological framework that went beyond a political or military periodisation, in his study of State action in the area of economics,as did Claudine Cotte in her study of France’s African economic policy. See Michel Margairaz (1991), L’État, les finances et l’économie. Histoire d’une conversion. 1932–1952 (Paris, Comité pour l’histoire économique et financière de la France); Claudine Cotte (1981), “La Politique économique de la France en Afrique noire. 1936–1946” (Thèse de troisième cycle, Université de Paris 7). See also Jacques Marseille (1984), Empire colonial et capitalisme français (Paris, Albin Michel); Richard F. Kuisel (1977), “Vichy et les origines de la planification économique (1940–1946)”, Le Mouvement social, no 98, pp. 77–101; Philippe Mioche (1987), Origines et démarrages de la planification en France (194/-1946) ( Paris, Publications de la Sorbonne).

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  4. Throughout this text, we have kept in mind that the use of such terms as “colonial sciences”, “sciences for the colonies, for colonisation”, etc., may have different meanings depending on the periods and the actors involved.The first half of the twentieth century, and especially the years covered in this text, saw deep transformations in “science”, not only in the emergence and evolution of disciplines and their content but also in scientific practices, the organization of science and its place in the socio-economic system (Big Science), the development of scientific policies, etc.In the Colonies, this involved notably the emergence of so-called “tropical” disciplines, the role of genetics and microbiology with respect to the “old” disciplines based on observation and classification, the involvement of multiple social actors from outside the new colonial scientific communities, the recurring debate on experimentation vs. surveys, etc.The colonial situation brings out two more specific features:— Most of the actors (including scientists) tended to subordinate what passed for “colonial research” to “harnessing” colonial wealth and more generally to direct economic utility. For this reason, the differentiation between the technical services and scientific research (in today’s sense of the word) was particularly long in coming about, and even longer than in metropolitan France. This differentiation occurred only during the period examined in the article, much later than in the British and Dutch empires.— The organization of scientific activities, as components of a colonial policy, was done by and for the metropolis, without consulting the local populations, including scientists. The way research was conducted in the Colonies, the objectives assigned to fundamental research were therefore much more dependent on elements and interests outside the Colonies than on eventual local dynamics.The content and eventual specificity of a “colonial/tropical science” were the constant subject of discussion, and we will refer to these several times in the course of the text, while keeping in mind that the content of the terms used was changing during this period.

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  5. Lewis Pyenson (1993), Civilizing Mission, Exact Science and French Overseas Expansion, 1830–1940 (Johns Hopkins UP); Anne-Marie Moulin, “Patriarcal Science: the Network of the Overseas Pasteur Institutes”, in P. Petitjean, C. Jami & A.-M. Moulin (1991), Science and Empires (Dordrecht, Kluwer Academic Publishers), pp. 307–322; Michael A. Osborne (1994), Nature, the Exotic and the Science of French Colonialism (Indiana UP); Christophe Bonneuil (1991), Des savants pour l’empire (Paris, ORSTOM); Christophe Bonneuil & Mina Kleiche (1993), Du jardin d’essais colonial à la station expérimentale. 1880–1930 ( Paris, CIRAD ).

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  6. Camille Limoges (1980), “The Development of the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle of Paris, c. 1800–1914”, in R. Fox & G. Weisz (eds.), The Organization of Science and Technology in France, 1808–1914 (Cambridge University Press and Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris) pp. 214–240; Daniel R. Headrick (1988), The Tentacles of Progress. TechnologyTransfer at the Age of Imperialism, 1850–1940 (Oxford UP), pp. 224–227; Bonneuil & Kleiche (1993), op. cit.

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  7. Yves Goudineau, “L’Altruisme et la science. De la bonté des sciences coloniales à l’excellence des sciences du développement”, in Journées des sociologues de l’ORSTOM, 17–18 septembre 199/ ( Paris, ORSTOM ), pp. 53–64.

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  8. See Albert Sarraut (1923), La Mise en valeur des Colonies ( Paris, Payot ), p. 342.

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  9. Archives“ of the Institut de Recherche Agronomique Tropicale, housed at the Nogent library on the site of the Jardin Colonial.

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  10. Académie des Sciences d’Outre-Mer, Fonds Paul Bourdarie (P.B. 44–18), plan for creating a special so-called colonial laboratories fund. The fourth section of the Academy included the natural and physical sciences.

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  11. Catherine Hodeir & Michel Pierre (1991), L’Exposition coloniale de 1931 ( Paris, Editions Complexe ).

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  12. Final report by Henry Hubert, Actes et Comptes rendus de l’Association Colonies-Sciences (ACRACS),8 no 87–88 (1932). The first resolution is offset by a restriction (p. 180): “The overall recommended organization should be established in view of grouping the efforts of services while leaving each one its full independence and responsibility. It is to give its opinion only on general principles or decisions of a general order to be taken.”

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  13. The percentage of colonial business in French exchanges with the outside went from 15.4% in 1929 to 30.4% in 1936. See Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch and Henri Moniot (1974), L’Afrique noire de 1800 à nos jours (PUF), p. 402.

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  14. Jacques Marseille (1984), Empire colonial et capitalisme français (Paris, Albin Michel, “Points histoire” H 126), pp. 265–268.

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  15. Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch (1979), “Vichy et l’industrialisation des colonies”, Revue d’histoire de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, no 114, pp. 69–84, see p. 77.

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  16. Louis Mérat (1936), L’Heure de l’économie dirigée aux colonies ( Paris, Sirey).

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  17. Auguste Chevalier (1932), “Les Recherches scientifiques appliquées à l’agriculture tropicale”, Report to the 1931 Congress on Colonial Scientific Research, ACRACS, 8 (1932), pp. 8–17, quotation p. 16); in the same vein, the reader can consult Maurice Martelli (1933), “Activités de Colonies-Sciences en 1932”, ACRACS, 9(1 933), p. 60, and the reports for the following years; Victor Cayla (1930), “Tendances actuelles de l’agriculture tropicale”, Revue politique et parlementaire$110 August 1930, pp. 259–268 (quotation, p. 266 ).

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  18. Maurice Martelli (1932), “Activités de Colonies-Sciences en 1931”, op. cit., pp. 84–96.

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  19. Martelli (1934), “Activités de Colonies-Sciences en 1933”, ACRACS, 10, no 107 (May 1934).

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  20. Martelli (1934), op. cit.

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  21. Pyenson (1993), op. cit.,pp. 64–65.

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  22. Marcel Roubault (1945), Trésors méconnus. Les Mines de l’Empire français (Paris, Editions Marco). Roubault objects to the complete subordination of the colonial geological services to the Services of Les Mines and the administration, and blames this for the lag in colonial geology. See also Lewis Pyenson (1989), “Pure Learning and Political Economy: Science and European Expansion in the Age of Imperialism”, New Trends in the History of Science ( Amsterdam, Rodopi ), pp. 209–278.

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  23. In effect it seems that there were still few overseas laboratories at this time, with the exception of three countries: Indo-China, Morocco and above all Algeria, where research had been institutionalized in conection with the increase in university teaching from the 1930s. See the inventories taken at the time the CFOM was established, under the direction of Albert Charton: Archives nationales, CAC 80–284, article 197. Apart from these countries, the rest were a desert, with the exception of the IFAN, ceated in 1936 in Dakar.

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  24. Annales de physique du globe de la France d ‘Outre-Mer,no 21 (February 1939), pp. 29–31.

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  25. See Pyenson (1993), op. cit.,p. 56. He estimates the number of physicists (in all areas) working at the Sorbonne at 175 (there were fewer outside Paris). Compare this with the 47 colonial meteorologists.

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  26. The first list appeared in the Bulletin de l’ACSC,no 1 (July 1937), pp. 10–15, with a supplement in no 2 (October 1937), p. 3.

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  27. The head, Marcel Roubault, being a geologist, geologists were surely over represented (with an even heavier representation in the association). The other principal founders were zoologists, who recruited from this field a fifth of the association’s membership. Finally a large proportion of doctors and a not negligeable fraction of researchers from the human sciences were affiliated to the association. Unlike “Colonies-Sciences”, the plant sciences no longer dominated. Overseas members were affiliated with the following institutions: the Science faculty at Algiers, the Maghreb Pasteur Institutes, the Institut Chérifien in Rabat, the geological services. In metropolitan France, there were 7 professors and 8 researchers from the Muséum, 11 professors from the University of Paris, 5 researchers from the Musée de l’Homme, 4 researchers from the Pasteur Institute, etc.

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  28. Congrès de la Recherche Scientifique dans les Territoires d’Outre-Mer,Paris, 1938, Association Colonies-Sciences. The ACRACS for 1937, 1938, 1939 contain other preliminary or session reports. More complete reports can be found in the private collection (Cervonni) of the Manelli family; the collection being transferred to the Archives nationales.

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  29. André Arnyvelde (1938), “L’Organisation de la recherche scientifique dans la France d’Outre-Mer”, La Nouvelle Revue, t. CLVI (1st August 1938), p. 247; Archives nationales, CAC 80284, article 197; see, too, a lettre from Roubault to Lacroix (Correspondance Alfred Lacroix, Archives de l’Académie des Sciences, letter dated 24 November 1936) in which he relates his activity in the “Jeune Science” movement, and sends him the texts he has just sent to the “young geologists” on the organization of their discipline; Georges Millot (1975), “L’Oeuvre scientifique de Marcel Roubault, 1905–1974”, Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France, 7, vol. XVII, no 1 (1975), pp. 3–17.

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  30. Text of the invitation in the Archives nationales, CAC 80–284, article 197. Colonies Sciences, together with the Bureau d’Études géologiques et minières coloniales and Fernand Blondel, placed their cardfiles at their disposal. There were 100 members at the time of the constituent assembly.

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  31. Paul Budker, zoologist, specialist on French West Africa; Georges Petit, zoologist, specialist on Madagascar; Paul Rode, zoologist, specialist on French West Africa; Jacques Trochain, botanist, specialist on French West Africa.

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  32. First statutes published in the Bulletin de I’ACSC,not (July 1937). On Perrin’s advice, these would be somewhat softened at the second general meting of the ACSC, with the possibility of “exceptional” membership being extended to civil servants or employees of public organizations having lived in the Colonies and played an important role in research, and to metropolitan researchers having published on the Colonies after a stay of at least three months, to constitute no more than 10% of the Association’s membership. See Bulletin de 1 ACSC,no 2 (October 1937). In support of this orientation, the Bulletin de 1’ACSC would create a section, beginning with no 4, on scientific laboratories in the Colonies and not colonial laboratories in metropolitan France.

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  33. Conversation with Théodore Monod, April 1991.

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  34. Archives nationales, CAC 80–284, article 197.

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  35. Archives nationales, CAC 80–284, article 198: Perrin to Cavalier, 9 November 1936.

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  36. Archives nationales, CAC 80–284, article 197.

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  37. Claudine Cotte (1981), op. cit. Quotation taken from a ministerial note in 1936.

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  38. A circular dated 31 August 1937 requests the General Governors to work out for each colony a five-year plan for harnessing local wealth. Claudine Cotte (1981), op. cit.,p. 110.

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  39. Archives nationales, série F60 (Secrétariat général du Gouvernement), carton 762.

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  40. The IFAN was created by the Arrété of 19 August 1936, at the instigation of Albert Charton, Director of Education in French West Africa. Théodore Monod took over the position in July 1938.

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  41. This Committee was created by the Arrété of 5 November 1937, specifying that this service “would be wholly free of preoccupations of an administrative order”. Its organization into sections would be faithfully modelled on that of the CFOM, for which it would be a local relay. See Raymond Decary (1939) “L’Activité du service de la recherche scientifique à Madagascar”, Bulletin de I Académie malgache,new series, t. XXII, pp. 125–137.

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  42. Organization remained the responsibility of Colonies-Sciences, but Henry Hubert was asked to chair the meeting.

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  43. See Jean-François Picard (1990), op. cit.

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  44. Jean Perrin (1936), Allocution, in Comptes rendus des séances de l’Académie des Sciences, t. 203, no 25 (Allocution of 21 December 1936 ) ( Paris, Gauthier-Villars ).

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  45. Archives nationales, CAC 80–284, article 197.

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  46. Maurice Martelli (1937), “Activités de Colonies-Sciences en 1936”, ACRACS, 13, no 148 (1937), pp. 169–176.

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  47. Noël Bemard (1937), “Au sujet de l’organisation des recherches scientifiques dans les Colonies”, ACRACS, 13, no 139 (1937), pp. 12–17.

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  48. From 1936 and early 1937 various letters by Henry Hubert (responsible for scientific research at the Ministry of the Colonies) to Alfred Lacroix speak of his doubts about Perrin’s projects. Archives of l’Académie des Sciences, fonds Alfred Lacroix.

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  49. Letter from Marius Moutet to the Minister of National Education, 24 August 1937. Letter from Laugier to Moutet, 27 August 1937. Archives nationales, CAC 80–284, article 198. Contains the different versions of the décret exchanged between June and August. Henri Laugier finally won out, and the Décret of 25 September 1937 is as he wished it.

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  50. The texts can be found in Archives nationales, CAC 80–284, article 198. Martelli mentions this second project. Maurice Martelli (1967), “Activités de Colonies-Sciences en 1936”, op. cit., pp. 169–176.

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  51. Letter from the Minister of the Colonies to Alfred Lacroix, 2 June 1938, archives of the Académie des Sciences, dossier biographique de Lacroix, carton 2.

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  52. Journal gfciel,2 October 1967, no 229, p. 11212.

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  53. Permanent section of the CSRS, handwritten notes of the meeting of 21 April 1937. Archives nationales, CAC 80–284, article 198.

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  54. Laugier drew up a list of the possible organizations for the Ministry of the Colonies, but stressed the importance and the representative character of the ACSC, “whose creation seems to have been welcomed unanimously, with the exception of Professor Auguste Chevalier, who did not wish to become a member”. Note of 18 February 1938. Archives nationales, CAC 80–284, article 198, Arrêté interministériel of 26 July 1938, setting the conditions for the designation of members of the CFOM by bodies regrouping colonial researchers. The ACSC representatives were elected at a last-minute general meeting called on 11 July 1938: only 35 of the 246 members were present. The bureau had put up candidates of whom three were beaten. Elected were: Coulomb, Ruellan, Arambourg, Roubault, Trochain, Vayssière, Jeannel, Lavier, Martelli, Vaufray, Griaule, Leiris, Levy-Brühl and Mme Schaeffner. See Bulletin de l’ACSC, no 4, July 1938.

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  55. And so the Minister of National Education, presiding in his stead, would use his introductory speech to reply to the colonial leaders’ doubts, assuring them that the Colonies would have pride of place in the CFOM’s activities. Albert Charton, representing the Minister of the Colonies (and Secretary General of the CFOM) wanted to reassure his listeners, and promised that his Ministry would keep an open ear and make a financial effort.

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  56. From 13 December 1938, the economic commission of the Conseil Supérieur de la France d’Outre-Mer began laying out the organization of scientific research in the Colonies, using a text issued by the the Directorate of Economic Affairs of the Ministry of the Colonies: this text proposed dividing colonial scientific activities into two classes: “research in pure science”, entrusted to the CFOM of the CSRS, for training researchers and coordinating research; and “the application of sciences and technical work”, to be entrusted to the Governors general and overseen by the Ministry. The intent was already to deprive the CFOM of part of its substance: the same ideas would be found at the Liberation in the same Directorate of the Ministry of the Colonies. The sole result of the economic commission discussion of 13 December 1938 would be a special commission to liaise with the CFOM, in particular with Martelli and Blondel. See Archives nationales, F60–762, chemise “Conseil Supérieur de la France d’Outre-Mer.

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  57. One of the first to have systematically developped these ideas was Fernand Blondel, in a lecture given in 1931 before the General Assembly of Colonies-Sciences. He advanced that there should be “a colonial scientific career completely separate from the metropolitan scientific career”. A minimum stay was indispensable in order to “adapt physically, psychologically and scientifically”. He suggested 15 years. The question of quality prevailed over all the rest: to attract the best researchers to the Colonies, this must not be done at their expense, they must be guaranteed a better career and better salary. They must be offered them tangible advantages and not simply the romanticism of colonial life. With a few exceptions, up until now, according to Blondel, all a colonial researcher gained from his stay in the Colonies was unpleasantness. Fernand Blondel (1931), “La Carrière scientifique coloniale”, ACRACS,7, no 70.

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  58. A portion of these can be found in the Archives nationales, CAC 80–284, article 197.

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  59. Created 23 March 1938. Archives nationales. CAC 80–284, article 4.

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  60. Charton’s role in French West Africa is the subject of discussion. His recognition of African civilizations seems to have gone hand in hand with hostility towards young African intellectuals, according to Mamadou Dia. See Mamadou Dia (1985), Mémoires d’un militant (Publisud), pp. 23–43.

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  61. Minutes of the meeting on 1st July 1938 of the permanent section of the CFOM. Archives nationales, CAC 80–284, article 198.

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  62. A condition specified, together with “compétence coloniale” (colonial experience) in the 26 July 1938 arrété setting the conditions for the designation of members of the CFOM by bodies regrouping colonial researchers. Archives nationales, CAC 80–284, article 198.

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  63. Archives nationales, CAC 80–284, article 198. Handwritten notes of the 9 December 1938 meeting.

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  64. Archives nationales, CAC 80–284, article 198. Minutes of the meetings of the permanent section of the CFOM, 3 February 1938 and Ist July 1939. A financial note reports on the funding (all of which was not yet in) for both 1937 and 1938: 0.535 million francs for the colonial territories and 0.198 million francs in State participation. For 1939, the State announced another 0.098 million francs.

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  65. For instance, Perrin had separated the Ecole franco-marocaine from the CFMRS.

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  66. Letter from Marius Moutet, Minister of the Colonies, to Alfred Lacroix, 2 June 1938. Archives of the Académie des Sciences, letters to Lacroix, carton 2.

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  67. See Jean-François Picard (1990), op. cit.,pp. 61–72.

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  68. Heim de Balsac represented the Ministry of the Colonies. Combes was appointed as a leading figure in science; Chevalier and Gruvel for Industry, Commerce and Agriculture and the major State services. Archives nationales, F60–6609.

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  69. Calan Report, 20 April 1939, Archives nationales, FI7–17462.

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  70. Note of February 1940 on the “present state of the organization of scientific research in France”: “The Director of the pure research section at the CNRS is aided, in matters of research concerning the Overseas Territories, by an FOM committee, itself divided into sections corresponding to the various disciplines”. Archives nationales, CAC 80–284, article 5.

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  71. See in particular: Jean Paillard (1943), L’Empire français de demain (Paris, Institut d’Études Corporatives et Sociales); L’Empire, notre meilleure chance (Lyon, Audin, 1942 ) (published on the occasion of the “quinzaine impériale”); L’Empire français et ses ressources (Paris, Centre d’Information Interprofessionnel, PUF, 1942 ).

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  72. Thobie, Meynier, Coquery-Vidrovitch & Ageron (1990), Histoire de la France coloniale ( Paris, Colin ), pp. 318–334.

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  73. Bertrand Mounier (1942-, L’Organisation de !’économie impériale par les comités coloniaux,Thesis in Law (Paris, Pedone). See also the Bulletin des groupements professionnels coloniaux,which appeared monthly from December 1941 to May 1942.

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  74. This supremacy and this intertwining of business circles and top civil servants, this modemizing drive for recovery by means of a planned economy are well established in metropolitan France in the wake of Kuisel’s work, and, in effect, have their corollary in the colonies. See R.F. Kuisel (1977), “Vichy et les origines de la planification économique (1940–1946)”, Le Mouvement social, no 98 (January-March 1977), pp. 77–102; Henry Rousso (1979), “L’Organisation industrielle de Vichy (perspectives de recherches)”, Revue d’histoire de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, no 116 (1979), pp. 27–44; Christian Vallar (1990), “Vichy: traditionalisme et technocratie”, Thesis for the Doctorat d’Etat in Law, University of Nice; Michel Margairaz (1992), “L’Etat et la décision économique: contraintes, convergences, résistances”, in J.-P. Azéma & F. Bédarida (under the direction of), Vichy et les Français (Paris, Fayard), pp. 329–344; Jacques Marseille (1984), op. cit., pp. 265–273 and 337–342; Claudine Cotte (1981), op. cit. The technocrats had the possibility of going further with the reforms that had been merely begun under the Popular Front. Many, such as Peter, Devinat, Brevié, Barthes had furthermore held power under the Popular Front or had been asked to make reforms.

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  75. Even though only 11.6% (84 billion francs) of the total had been budgeted for the Overseas Territories, with which communications were becoming difficult, and especially because it was ultimately rejected, the plan raised the issue of State financing and industrialization.

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  76. Jacques Marseille (1984), op. cit.,pp. 337–342; Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch (1979), op. cit.,pp. 69–94.

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  77. Apart from the trans-Saharan, the Niger Office occupied a favorable place in colonial propaganda, and in 1941 the Government awarded it 600 million francs for ten years. See Emil Schreyger (1984), L’Office du Niger au Mali ( Wiesbaden, Steiner ), pp. 120–122.

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  78. One of Jacob’s main criticisms of the CNRS was its excessive number of commissions and councils, its parlementarisme. A criticism typical of the mood of the times during the Vichy regime. Charles Jacob (1941), “Exposé sur la recherche scientifique dans les Colonies”, Académie des Sciences Coloniales, session of 21 November 1941.

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  79. Jean-François Picard (1990), op. cit.,pp. 72–84.

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  80. Such as Retéaud, Dischamp and P. Budker.

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  81. Such as Rene Michaux (president of the rubber section and the palm oil subsection), De Vogue (vice-president of the rubber section), De Bressieux (president of the fruit and citrus section), Gruet (president of the hemp and other fibers section), Noël (wood), etc.

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  82. At the Brazzaville conference these were the three products for which Pleven envisaged creating product-specific research committees. See Claudine Cotte (1981), op. cit.,p. 88.

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  83. Figures taken from Cotte (1981), op. cit., Part II, Chap. 2.

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  84. In June 1942. the General Government of French West Africa turned over the Bingerville (Ivory Coast) station and chemistry laboratory to the IRCA, those in La Me (Ivory Coast) and Bobe (Dahomey) to the IRHO, those in Bouaké (Ivory Coast) and Kindia (Guinea) to the UCEF. In this way, the planters gained control of research on palm oil in French West Africa, while the Africans were the main producers. With the exception of Kindia, these stations would be taken over by the administration after the interim of Pétain’s government. See Archives nationales du Sénégal, Fonds du Gouvernement General, I R197, “note relative à l’organisation et au fonctionnement des services agricoles de l’AOF”, by Inspector General Sagot, 6 May 1946.

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  85. The IFC, recognized in 1943 as a private technical school, ensured in particular the training of “rubber engineers”.

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  86. Archives nationales, section Outre-Mer, Affaires économiques, 58.

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  87. Engineer, graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole des Mines, head of the Service Géologique de l’Indochine from 1925 to 1929, he was later appointed director of the Bureau d’Etudes Geologiques et Minières Coloniales, an autonomous body that had the support of the administration and the profession (Comité des Forges, Comité des Houillères, Chambre syndicale des mines métalliques). At the end of 1942 he joined the Government in Algiers where he worked for the Commissariat à l’Industrie.

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  88. Budker undertook a mission to West Africa in 1941. In a 1943 report setting out a production plan for colonial fisheries, he quoted an expression from Devinat: “The exploitation of the Colonies should be based on laboratory work”. Archives nationales, section Outre-Mer, Affaires économiques, 58.

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  89. Raymond Delval, “Raymond Decary (1981–1973)”, in Hommes et destins. Dictionnaire biographique d’Outre-Mer ( Paris, Académie des Sciences d’Outre-Mer), t. II, p. I.

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  90. Conversation with A. Angladette. Angladette would teach this university’s first courses in biology.

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  91. Creation of a Botany Laboratory (1942), an Ethnology Laboratory (1941), of a technical and scientific framework, expansion of the building and first units in French West Africa in 1942. In mid—I942 Monod visited France and recruited 10 researchers, who did not have the time to reach Dakar. See Archives nationales, CAC 80–0284, article 54, dossier “Instituts de recherche”; Notes africaines,no 37 (January 1948), special issue on the 10th anniversary of the IFAN.

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  92. Testimony of Renaud Paulian. Paulian worked with Jeannel at the Museum’s Entomology Laboratoryduring the Occupation. He later was the director of the Brazzaville ORSTOM center, from 1961 to 1966. In a letter to the Minister of the Colonies, dated 7 August 1942, Jeannel recalled that, in August 1941, he had been requested by the Administration to draft a proposal, in the framework of a plan for reorganizing the Department’s administration, to propose a project for a Colonial Science steering committee, which would ultimately be rejected Jy the Ministry of Finances in October. Archives nationales, CAC 90–0260, article 1.

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  93. C. Delamare & Renaud Paulian (1966), “Le Professeur René Jeannel”, Annales de la Société Entomologique de France, special issue, II.

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  94. René Jeannel (1941), Au seuil de l’Antarctique (Paris. Editions du Muséum, PUF). According to Paulian, his principal supporters were Captain de Corvette Chaix, director of the private secretariat for the Secretary of State, Admiral Platon.

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  95. Letter from Renaud Paulian.

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  96. In February 1942, Jeannel did not hesitate to tell the Director of the CNRS that he would have at least 80 million francs for 1942. See Archives nationales, CAC 90–0260, article 1.

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  97. Fonds Cervonni, dossier “ACS-ORSC”, letter from Jeannel to Martelli dated 20 December 1941.

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  98. Annuaire du Ministère des Colonies,1940–1942. There seems to be no trace of this service in the Ministry archives.

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  99. Fonds Cervonni, dossier “ACS-ORSC”, letter from Jeannel to Martelli, 20 December 1942 and rest of the correspondence.

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  100. Our lowest estimate is 1.35 million, in view of the elements we found in: Fonds Cervonni, dossier “ACS-ORSC” and Archives nationales. CAC 90–0260, article 1.

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  101. Archives nationales, CAC 90–0260, article 1.

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  102. Fonds Cervonni, dossier “ACS-ORSC”.

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  103. Charles Jacob (1941), op. cit.

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  104. Law of 10 March 1941.

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  105. Letter to the President of the Council, 3 march 1942. Archives nationales, F60–6609.

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  106. Circulaire no 1577 S.G. (Cabinet) of 16 March 1942. Archives nationales, F60–609.

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  107. After the advent of the Laval Government in April 1942, Jacob was unable to prevent the creation of research institutes separate from the CNRS. See Jean-François Picard (1990), op. cit. pp. 79–81.

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  108. Archives de l’Institut Pasteur. Fonds de la Direction (1940–65), carton ORSC, Charles Jacob, “projet d’une organisation conjointe des recherches scientifiques et de leurs applications aux Colonies”, 7 July 1942.

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  109. Archives nationales, CAC 90–0260, article 1, letter from Jeannel to Laigret, 2 July 1942. The name put forward seems at that time to have been “Institut Colonial des Recherches Scientifiques”; see also Archives nationales, F17–13358.

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  110. On 16 July 1942, a subcommission of the first commission met and Jeannel was asked to draft a law for the Secretary of State. On 19 July, Jacob sent the Secretary of State a “second note on scientific research and the Colonies” (see Archives nationales F17–13358, dossier “recherche scientifique aux Colonies”; Archives de l’Institut Pasteur. Fonds de la Direction [1940–65], carton ORSC), and obtained an

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  111. In September 1942, it appears that the draft law on the “Centre Colonial de la Recherche Scientifique” was submitted by Brevié to Pétain but was rejected. The proposal was therefore sent on to the Secretariat General of the Head of Government (Laval), who consulted the Minister of National Education. See Archives nationales F60–609, dosier 2, letter of 22 September 1942 from the Secretary of State to the Colonies to the Secretary General of the Head of the Government.

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  112. René Jeannel (1943), “La Recherche scientifique coloniale”, in Quelques problèmes de la recherche scientifique coloniale ( Paris, Editions de l’ORSC ), pp. 12–13.

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  113. Archives de l’Institut Pasteur, Fonds de la Direction (1940–65), carton ORSC: Board Meeting of 29 December 1942, p. 3.

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  114. The minutes of the Board Meetings held 22 December 1942, 29 December 1942 and 16 March 1943, and the annexes (Archives de l’Institut Pasteur, Fonds de la Direction [194065], carton ORSC) present the organization and the budget forecasts. The minutes of the following Board Meetings (from Combes’ time) and the 1943 list of personnel ( Archives du Service du Personnel, Direction de l’ORSTOM, not classed) give some idea of what was actually implemented.

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  115. Archives nationales, CAC 90–0260, article 1, for Erhard’s resignation. Jean Dorst (1985), “Roger Heim (1900–1979)”, in Hommes et destins. Dictionnaire biographique d’Outre-Mer (Paris, Académie des Sciences d’Outre-Mer) t. V, pp. 242–244, for the arrest and deportation, in August 1943, of Roger Heim, member of the Resistance.

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  116. See Jeannel’s correspondence for 1943: Archives nationales, CAC 90–0260, article 1.

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  117. The décret d ‘application appeared 14 October 1943.

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  118. Réception de Monsieur le Professeur Raoul Combes“, Académie des Sciences coloniales, session of 22 May 1953, welcoming speech given by Charles Jacob.

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  119. Raoul Combes (1945), “L’Office de la Recherche Scientifique Coloniale”, Bulletin de l’ACSC, 2nd series, no 1 (July 1945), pp. 19–37. With the list of the commissions and their members.

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  120. Archives nationales, CAC 90–0260, article 1, note of 16 November 1943.

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  121. Archives nationales, CAC 90–0236, article I, letter of 17 August 1944 from Bléhaut to Jacob, president of the ORSC.

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  122. Archives nationales, CAC 90–0260, article I, letter from Combes to Buf, 16 November 1943.

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  123. Besides the usual colonials (Chevalier, Jeannel, Brumpt and Labourer), the commission included Charles Maurain, the chemist Gabriel Bertrand, the soils specialist Demolon and Genissieu.

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  124. Archives nationales, section Outre-Mer, Affaires politiques 878 (dossier 4). Draft décret, undated, no doubt early 1944.

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  125. Archives nationales, section Outre-Mer, Fonds du Cabinet, carton 14, dossier “recherches scientifiques coloniales”.

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  126. Letter no 846 from the Minister of the Colonies to the Finance Minister, 30 September 1944, Archives nationales, CAC 90–0260 article 2, correspondance. Administrative continuity is also visible in the numbering of the letters. The ordonnance drafted by Combes is included in letter no 864, 10 October 1944, from Combes to the Minister of the Colonies.

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  127. This would not occur until 1953. The CNRS was reorganized in October 1945.

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  128. Christophe Charle & Eva Telkes (1981), Les Professeurs à la faculté des Sciences de Paris. Dictionnaire biographique ( Paris, Editions du CNRS ), p. 82.

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  129. Financial autonomy enabled the ORSC to manage its own subventions. This does not mean, however, that all of the money for the colonial sciences was channeled through it: the Ministry of the Colonies had other research services and, above and beyond the problem of coordinating these bodies, a Caisse générale would be set up within this Ministry in 1945. The three countries of North Africa did not come under the Ministry of the Colonies, and their research was funded through other channels, among which the CNRS.

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  130. Letter no 1039 from Combes to Jacob, 20 November 1944, Archives nationales, CAC 900260, article 2, correspondance.

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  131. These figures are taken from the budgets presented at Board Meetings. For CFOM credits, see above and Archives nationales, CAC 80–284, article 198.

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  132. Agricultural genetics, animal genetics, agricultural entomology, medical and veterinary entomology, pedology, plant pathology, biological oceanography, physical oceanography, human sciences, hydrology. The first courses to be created were in disciplines not widely institutionalized or taught in France: genetics (first taught in July 1944), pedology (October 1944), agricultural entomology (November 1944) and phytopathology (early 1945 ).

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  133. Archives nationales, CAC 90–0262, article 1: “ORSC”, note for the chairman of the budget. In 1951, this figure reached 157, and 236 in 1955. Archives nationales, section Outre-Mer, Fonds des Affaires économiques, financières et du plan des TOM, carton 91. Rapport d’Inspection Pruvost (copy kindly provided by Hélène Launay), p. 12; activity report 1944–1955.

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  134. Picard (1990), op. cit., p. 133. On the inadequacy and the specificity of genetics in France before 1945, see R. Burian, J. Gayon & D. Salien (1988), The Singular Fate of Genetics in the History of French Biology, 1900–1940“, Journal of the History of Biology, 21 (1988), pp. 357–402. Tessier, Director of the CNRS, said at the 1946 Board Meeting: ”To teach subjects never before taught in France was to do something that could hardly be done, but m Combes did it. His is an example to be followed.“ Cited by Michel Gleizes (1985), Un regard.sur l’ORSTOM ( Paris, Editions de l’ORSTOM ), p. 21.

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  135. Archives nationales, section Outre-Mer, Fonds des Affaires économiques, financières et du plan des TOM, carton 91. Rapport Inspection Pruvost, p. 13.

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  136. Archives nationales, CAC 90–236, article I, Director’s speech to the first Board Meeting, 23 December 1943.

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  137. Minutes of the fourth Board Meeting, 30 April 1945.

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  138. Minutes of the fifth ORSC Board Meeting, ORSTOM archives.

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  139. FIDES: Fonds d’Investissement pour le Dévelopement Economique et Social des Territoires d’Outre-Mer. The reader can consult Michel Gleizes (1985) op. cit.,for this expansion.

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  140. It is hardly playing with words to add that the study of Africa is carried out in Europe. Let us not forget that, even though it does not have all the technical means at the disposal of metropolitan science, it [the local center] and only it is in contact with the milieu, the field, the living study, with direct experimentation“ (Monod, quoted in the ”Rapport de Melle Dugast après sa prise de contact avec l’IFAN à Dakar“, December 1943, Archives nationales, CAC 80–284, article 54, dossier ”Instituts de recherches“.

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  141. Belgium was getting ready to lauch an identical project which was to be a counterpart carried out in a dry zone.

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  142. Théodore Monod had considerably expanded IFAN activities since the early 1940s, setting up numerous local units, including in French Equatorial Africa. Monod could not accept the ORSC’s hegemonic designs, and the two years of negotiations carried on between 1945 and 1947 ended in failure. The conflict went on for ten years, with the ORSC finally succeeding in confining the IFAN to a restricted domain.

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  143. Only the IRSM and the IEC would be given a legal personality and financial autonomy. The rest would become services of the ORSC.

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  144. Jean Coulomb was the former Director of the Institut de Météorologie et de Physique du Globe in Algiers, and the future Director of the CNRS. At the time, he was Director of the Institut de physique du Globe in Paris. His trip was supposed to put the finishing touches on anetwork of geophysical stations. Nizery reported on his mission at the sixth ORSC Board Meeting, held 15 September 1945. He had managed to lay the grounds for the Institut de Recherches Scientifiques de Madagascar (IRSM) and, on an unplanned stopover in French Equatorial Africa, those of the Institut d’Etudes Centrafricaines (IEC). In French West Africa he launched the Centre Intertropical and initiated discussions on the 1FAN with the Governor General and Monod; at this point the difficulties were not yet apparent. See the Minutes of the sixth ORSC Board Meeting, ORSTOM archives. The IRSM was created in December 1946. The IEC, in June 1946. Catala’s mission to New Caledonia would lead to the the creation of the Institut Français d’Océanie (IFO) in August 1946.

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  145. Archives nationales, CAC 90–0260, article 1, Jeannel to the Secretary General of the Comité Central des Groupements, 18 July 1942. Jeannel even presented a plan to bring agronomic research into the ORSC (Archives nationales, CAC 90–0260, article 1, note of 23 January 1943). In February he complained of the “tendency of the Professional Groups to take the place of the State in organizing research”. At the beginning of 1943 he attempted to impose on the Institutes his prerogative to coordinate. See Archives nationales, CAC 90–0260, article 1, Jeannel to Jacob, 9 February 1943; and a report dated 15 March 1943, as well as other parts of the present article which illustrate this rivalry.

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  146. Archives nationales, CAC 90–0236, article 1.

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  147. Communication by M. Guillaume, Director of Agriculture on the “delimitation of the respective attributions and fields of activity of the different bodies involved in colonial scientific research”, dated 19 July 1945, to the CSRSC “commission for the coordination of research programs”. Archives nationales, CAC 80–284, article 199. This commission was presided by Joliot. Combes was present whereas he had boycotted the plenary session of the CSRSC held a few days earlier.

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  148. Michel Gleizes (1985), op. cit.,pp. 13–17. The reference is no doubt to Guillaume and Kopp.

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  149. The participants, apart from Combes, were the heads of the various Ministry Directorates. See Archives nationales, CAC 90–0236. article I. The report on this meeting, written up by Nizery, Secretary General of the ORSC, was distributed to all board members. See note 132. On 4 November 1944, Combes had sent a note to the Minister of the Colonies, setting out the ORSC’s point of view on its role in colonial agronomic research. Letter no 971, Archives nationales, CAC 90–0260, article I, correspondance.

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  150. Minutes of 12 December 1944, with an activity report covering June-December and the report of the “Sailer Commission”.

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  151. Letter no 1146, 23 July 1945 from Combes to Sailer, Archives nationales, CAC 90–0260, article 2, correspondance. Letter no 1608, 2 October 1945, from Combes to the Minister of the Colonies, ibid. Pretexting money saved, the Direction des Affaires économiques and the Direction du Plan tried in vain to eliminate all colonial contributions to the ORSC budget for 1946.

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  152. Letters in March and April 1945. Archives nationales, CAC 90–0260, article 2, correspondance.

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  153. The Director of the Plan (Sailer) and the Director of the CNRS (Joliot) were vice presidents. The text describes its members as “producers and utilisers of research”. Much space is given to colonial administration. When he had the draft décret in hand, Combes provoked a meeting with Joliot, adding the handwritten postscriptum to his letter: “this question is extremely important and must be dealt with as soon as possible if we do not want to see the scientists overtaken by representatives of production and private interests”. Letter from Combes to Joliot, 20 April 1945, Archives nationales, CAC 80–284, article 199.

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  154. Michel Gleizes (1985) op. cit.,pp. 13–17. The CSRSC was replaced in September 1947 by a Conseil Supérieur des Recherches Scientifiques dans les Territoires d’Outre-Mer(CSRSTOM), in which the Director of the ORSC would be the vice president and Nizery would continue on as General Secretary.

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  155. According to Combes’ version, the meeting had been called voluntarily while Nizery, who was supposed to have been the General Secretary, was on mission in French West Africa. The only written reports to have been presented were those by Kopp and Guillaume. Despite having asked to see the proposals before the meeting, he was unable to peruse them beforehand. See letter from Combes to Sailer, no 1603, 2 October 1945, Archives nationales, CAC 80–0260, article 2, correspondance.

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  156. Message from Guillaume dated 19 July 1945, for the CSRSC commission. Guillaume felt that the ORSC “should train the personnel for the major scientific disciplines from which agronomy research borrowed its methods, but should not itself carry out research except that lacking any immediate practical goal and tending towards a general inventory of the Colonies. He therefore requested that the ORSC statutes be modified accordingly, but did not obta in satisfaction.

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  157. Minutes of the CSRSC commission meeting, 26 July 1945, Archives nationales, CAC 80–284, article 199.

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  158. Letter no 1450, 7 September 1945 from Combes to Salter, Archives nationales, CAC 900260, article 2, correspondance. In his letter, Combes agrees to Saller’s written presentation on the role of the Office in a note dated 2 August 1945. See letter of 20 August 1945 to Marcel Roubault, Archives nationales, CAC 80–260, article 2, correspondance. Bulletin de 1’ACSC, new series, no 1, 1945.

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  159. Archives nationales, CAC 80–0284, article 199.

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  160. Auguste Chevalier (1947), “André-Th. Kopp”, Revue de botanique appliquée et d’agronomie tmpicale, 1947, pp. 438–439.

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  161. This was the case of Combes himself.

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  162. The question of allowing the scientific disciplines autonomy in their dealings with professionalization and “politics” underpinned the “specificity” of the colonial (tropical) sciences: this is a course of studies that the framework of this article unfortunately does not allow us to explore.

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  163. More generally, but this would be another undertaking, the orientations for the development of the colonial sciences (those set out by Perrin, Kopp, the ACSC, with the intermediairies) and the way the ORSC was constituted have left their mark on the problems of scientific development today in the countries of the South. This colonial legacy concerns not only the institutions, the scientific communities and the North/South division of labor, but also the content of the disciplines as well as the representations of science in the former colonized countries.

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    Christophe Bonneuil & Patrick Petitjean

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Terry Shinn Jack Spaapen Venni Krishna

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Bonneuil, C., Petitjean, P. (1997). Science and French Colonial Policy. Creation of the ORSTOM: From the Popular Front to the Liberaton via Vichy, 1936–1943. In: Shinn, T., Spaapen, J., Krishna, V. (eds) Science and Technology in a Developing World. Sociology of the Sciences, vol 19. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2948-2_5

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