Agree upon the following Articles:

ARTICLE 51.

The territories which were ceded to Germany in accordance with the Preliminaries of Peace signed at Versailles on February 26, 1871, and the Treaty of Frankfort of May 10, 1871, are restored to French sovereignty as from the date of the Armistice of November 11, 1918.

The provisions of the Treaties establishing the delimitation of the frontiers before 1871 shall be restored.

Note to III, 51

Emphasis was given to the redressing of the stated wrong by dating the retrocession of Alsace-Lorraine to France from the armistice instead of from the entry of the treaty into force, which is stipulated by the final clauses to be the date from which times begin to run. By this language article 51 records, rather than effects, the reversion of Alsace-Lorraine to France.

The National Assembly of Bordeaux met as a newly elected body on February 13, 1871. On March 1 it accepted, 546 to 107, the terms of the Preliminaries of Peace of February 26, 1871 (62 British and Foreign State Papers, p. 59). The definitive treaty of peace signed at Frankfurt on May 10, 1871 and in effect on May 20 is printed at ibid., p. 77, in French, and in English in Hertslet, Map of Europe by Treaty, III, 1954.

The provisions of this section in many respects are patterned on the conditions imposed by Germany in 1871, thus aiming precisely to abrogate the German regime.

Although admitting that in 1871 Germany had not consulted the wishes of the people in taking possession of Alsace-Lorraine, the German delegation demanded that this wrong should not be "replaced by a fresh and still greater wrong" and asked for a plebiscite, since 87 percent of the inhabitants belonged to Germany "by virtue of language and customs (Foreign Relations, The Paris Peace Conference, 1919, vi, 829). They must be allowed to choose freely between union with France, union with Germany as an autonomous state, and complete independence. There was no justification for antedating the cession to the date of the armistice or for the provisions of the treaty dealing with nationality; Germany could not surrender the eastern half of the bridges over the Rhine or consent to the incorporation of Kehl in France. Furthermore, France should take

Note to III, 51—Continued

over a part of the German national debt and make a special settlement concerning employment insurance.

The Allied reply declared that having accepted the Eighth Point (of the Fourteen) and signed the armistice, Germany had no right to demand a plebiscite and that "the population of Alsace and Lorraine has never asked for it". The date of cession was also determined by the armistice (ibid., p. 944). It was also pointed out that in 1871 Germany had not assumed any share of the French debt. On the other hand, it had always been understood that France would accept liability for the local debt of Alsace-Lorraine.

ARTICLE 52.

The German Government shall hand over without delay to the French Government all archives, registers, plans, titles and documents of every kind concerning the civil, military, financial, judicial or other administrations of the territories restored to French sovereignty. If any of these documents, archives, registers, titles or plans have been misplaced, they will be restored by the German Government on the demand of the French Government.

ARTICLE 53.

Separate agreements shall be made between France and Germany dealing with the interests of the inhabitants of the territories referred to in Article 51, particularly as regards their civil rights, their business and the exercise of their professions, it being understood that Germany undertakes as from the present to recognise and accept the regulations laid down in the Annex hereto regarding the nationality of the inhabitants or natives of the said territories, not to claim at any time or in any place whatsoever as German nationals those who shall have been declared on any ground to be French, to receive all others in her territory, and to conform, as regards the property of German nationals in the territories indicated in Article 51, with the provisions of Article 297 and the Annex to Section IV of Part X (Economic Clauses) of the present Treaty.

Those German nationals who without acquiring French nationality shall receive permission from the French Government to reside in the said territories shall not be subjected to the provisions of the said Article.

ARTICLE 54.

Those persons who have regained French nationality in virtue of paragraph 1 of the Annex hereto will be held to be Alsace-Lorrainers for the purposes of the present Section.

The persons referred to in paragraph 2 of the said Annex will from the day on which they have claimed French nationality be held to be Alsace-Lorrainers with retroactive effect as from November 11, 1918. For those whose application is rejected, the privilege will terminate at the date of the refusal.

Such juridical persons will also have the status of Alsace-Lorrainers as shall have been recognised as possessing this quality, whether by the French administrative authorities or by a judicial decision.

Text of May 7:

Such juridical persons will also have the status of Alsace-Lorrainers as have been recognised as possessing this quality, whether by the French administrative authorities or by a judicial decision.

Note to III, 54

French laws relating to public order were made applicable to Alsace-Lorraine as a whole and without distinction by the law of October 17, 1919.

A French decree of January 11, 1920 regulated the procedure for applying the rules with respect to nationality set forth in the treaty of peace.

ARTICLE 55.

The territories referred to in Article 51 shall return to France free and quit of all public debts under the conditions laid down in Article 255 of Part IX (Financial Clauses) of the present Treaty.

ARTICLE 56.

In conformity with the provisions of Article 256 of Part IX (Financial Clauses) of the present Treaty, France shall enter into possession of all property and estate, within the territories referred to in Article 51, which belong to the German Empire or German States, without any payment or credit on this account to any of the States ceding the territories.

This provision applies to all movable or immovable property of public or private domain together with all rights whatsoever be

longing to the German Empire or German States or to their administrative areas.

Crown property and the property of the former Emperor or other German sovereigns shall be assimilated to property of the public domain.

ARTICLE 57.

Germany shall not take any action, either by means of stamping or by any other legal or administrative measures not applying equally to the rest of her territory, which may be to the detriment of the legal value or redeemability of German monetary instruments or monies which, at the date of the signature of the present Treaty, are legally current, and at that date are in the possession of the French Government.

Note to III, 57

An order of the French Premier dated November 26, 1918 retired the German mark as legal tender from December 15 and established an exchange rate of 1.25 francs per mark. This was followed by a law for regularization of the currency on April 23, 1919.

ARTICLE 58.

A special Convention will determine the conditions for repayment in marks of the exceptional war expenditure advanced during the course of the war by Alsace-Lorraine or by public bodies in Alsace-Lorraine on account of the Empire in accordance with German law, such as payment to the families of persons mobilised, requisitions, billeting of troops, and assistance to persons who have been evacuated.

In fixing the amount of these sums Germany shall be credited with that portion which Alsace-Lorraine would have contributed to the Empire to meet the expenses resulting from these payments, this contribution being calculated according to the proportion of the Imperial revenues derived from Alsace-Lorraine in 1913. Note to III, 58

The special convention concerning the treasury of Alsace-Lorraine was concluded at Baden-Baden June 30, 1920 (8 League of Nations Treaty Series, p. 79) and entered into force July 23, 1921. By application of this article and in virtue of articles 1-5 of that convention the Reparation Commission fixed the amount at 33,000,000 gold marks. Payment of the sum was treated as arrears by article 8, A, c, of the Finance Ministers' Agreement of January 14, 1925.

ARTICLE 59.

The French Government will collect for its own account the Imperial taxes, duties and dues of every kind leviable in the territories referred to in Article 51 and not collected at the time of the Armistice of November 11, 1918.

Note to III, 59

German indirect taxes on numerous articles and of various types were abrogated as from August 1, 1919 by orders dated June 18,

1919.

ARTICLE 60.

The German Government shall without delay restore to AlsaceLorrainers (individuals, juridical persons and public institutions) all property, rights and interests belonging to them on November 11, 1918, in so far as these are situated in German territory.

ARTICLE 61.

The German Government undertakes to continue and complete without delay the execution of the financial clauses regarding Alsace-Lorraine contained in the Armistice Conventions.

ARTICLE 62.

The German Government undertakes to bear the expense of all civil and military pensions which had been earned in AlsaceLorraine on date of November 11, 1918, and the maintenance of which was a charge on the budget of the German Empire.

The German Government shall furnish each year the funds necessary for the payment in francs, at the average rate of exchange for that year, of the sums in marks to which persons resident in AlsaceLorraine would have been entitled if Alsace-Lorraine had remained under German jurisdiction.

Note to III, 62

A special convention between France and Germany signed at Baden-Baden March 3, 1920 (8 League of Nations Treaty Series, p. 45) related to pensions in Alsace-Lorraine and entered into force on that date. The Arbitral Tribunal of Interpretation decided on March 24, 1926 that the payments in execution of article 62 were included in the annuities of the Experts' (Dawes) Plan, reversing article 8, B, a, of the Finance Ministers' Agreement of January 14, 1925.