Émile Naggiar

Paul-Émile Naggiar (3 May 1883 – 28 August 1961) was a French diplomat.

Consul in Shanghai

Naggiar was born in Cairo where his father was serving as a diplomat. His Jewish family had originated in Baghdad before immigrating to France. He was educated at the Ecole des Sciences Politiques in Paris and at the Sorbonne. Naggiar joined the Quai d'Orsay and was appointed the deputy French consul in Shanghai in 1912. From 1915 to 1917, he served as the French consul in Shanghai, placing him in charge of the French Concession as the district of downtown Shanghai that was a French colony was known. He served as the French consul-general in Montreal from 1921 to 1926.

In 1926, Naggair returned to Shanghai as the Consul-general. The year 1927 was an especially troubled time in Shanghai as the city was captured by the Kuomintang and Chinese Communists during the Great Northern Expedition. Shanghai had been ruled by the warlord General Sun Chuanfang until March 1927, and it was widely believed the new rulers in Shanghai would seek to end all of the foreign concessions in China. There had been a number of violent clashes in other Chinese cities as both Britain and Japan forcefully sought to uphold their extra-territorial rights in China against the demands of both the Communists and the Kuomintang for the end of extra-territorial rights.

In a statement issued on 2 April 1927 to the residents of the French Concession, Naggiar declared: "The forces sent by the French government are sufficient to meet any emergency that might arise." He added: "as many rumours were being circulated in order to weaken the morale of the foreign population it was necessary for all residents to be careful not to take them seriously. Security of life and property inside the Concession would be maintained by the French authorities, responsible to their government, by taking all necessary measures". The area around the French Concession was heavily fortified with a gigantic wall with machine-gun posts and barbed wire severing the Concession from the rest of Shanghai, all the more so because France had never actually signed a treaty with China granting the right for a concession in Shanghai and the French Concession rested entirely upon force majeure. The streets that connected the French Concession to the rest of Shanghai all had gates and guard-posts. Naggair had the French garrison in the Concession reinforced by a brigade of the troupes de marine along with colonial troops from Annam (modern Vietnam). To provide additional support, Naggair apparently made a deal with the Green Gang Triad, the most powerful crime syndicate in China, that the police in the French Concession would protect the opium dens, brothels and gambling houses owned by the Green Gang in exchange for the Green Gang using its power to control the Chinese population of the French Concession. The French Concession, where Chinese law did not apply, was to remain a major base for the Green Gang.

On 12 April 1927, the alliance between the Communists and the Kuomintang came to a violent end, marking the start of a long civil war that would not end until 1949. The Kuomintang and the Green Gang joined forces against the Communists and staged several massacres on the streets of Shanghai. When China embroiled in civil war, Chiang Kai-shek announced that his government was committed to peacefully ending the extra-territorial rights of the foreign powers in China, which for Naggair and the French government in general were a major relief. In 1927, he was promoted to be deputy director of the Asia-Pacific department of the Quai d'Orsay.

Minister in Belgrade

Naggiar was a protégé of Alexis St. Léger, the Secretary-General (the number one official) of the Quai d'Orsay. Naggiar was part of an elite group of diplomats whose careers were sponsored by St. Léger that also included René Massigli, Robert Coulondre, Charles Corbin and François Charles-Roux. It was after St. Léger became Secretary-General of the Quai d'Orsay that Naggiar's career began to advance. From 1933 to 1935, Naggiar served as the French minister-plenipotentiary to Yugoslavia. In March 1933, King Alexander rejected Naggiar's advice to end the royal dictatorship and turn Yugoslavia into a federation, saying it would result in anarchy and civil war. During his time in Belgrade, Naggiar repeatedly complained that the French policy of imposing high tariffs on Yugoslav products was weakening French influence in Yugoslavia, all the more so as Germany was all too willing to import Yugoslav agricultural products to feed its people. Ever since the early 1920s, French companies had dominated the automobile and aircraft markets in Yugoslavia with the vast majority of aircraft and automobiles in Yugoslavia being French imports. Yugoslavia was a mostly rural nation and food was its largest export. Naggiar charged that Yugoslavia was falling into the German economic sphere of influence, and inevitably would also fall into the German political sphere of influence as well. In response, Naggiar was told that French farmers disliked competing with Yugoslav farmers in their home market and that Yugoslav farmers did not vote in French elections. In common with the other French minister-plenipotentiaries who served in Belgrade, Naggiar found his positing to be a frustrating one as he watched Yugoslavia fall into the German sphere of influence while his advice was ignored in Paris.

The French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou had a policy of seeking strengthen France's alliances in Eastern Europe. Thought 1934, Naggiar repeatedly invited King Alexander to visit France to meet Barthou in order to strengthen the Franco-Yugoslov alliance, a trip the king was notably reluctant to undertake out of the fear of being assassinated. After surviving several assassination attempts, Alexander did not like to leave the safety of the Royal Palace in Belgrade. When Alexander did agree to visit France, Naggiar wrote to Paris that the French police had to take "absolutely special measures" to protect the king. Naggiar was present when on 9 October 1934 King Alexander of Yugoslavia landed in Marseilles to be greeted by Barthou. Naggiar saw both Barthou and King Alexander assassinated later that day during a coach ride down the streets of Marseilles. After the dual assassinations, Naggiar returned to Belgrade. The Yugoslav Foreign Minister Bogoljub Jevtić confronted him with evidence that the assassins had been working in the pay of Italy and Hungary, leading him to tell Naggier: "The abominable crime of Marseilles proves that political assassination is now one of the methods used by certain governments. If we want to keep the peace in Europe, we must put an end to this scandal once and for all". The new French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval wanted an understanding with Benito Mussolini, and was not willing to confront Rome over the assassinations despite the ample evidence that the assassins were indeed working for Italy. Naggiar was forced to tell his hosts that France was not interested in exploring who was ultimately responsible for the murders. The matter was referred to the League of Nations whose committee of experts ignored all of the evidence that implicated Italian officials in the dual assassinations such as a number of phone calls the assassins made to Rome and instead issued a report that mildly criticized Hungary for providing the forged Czechoslovak passports that allowed the assassins to travel to France. In 1935, Milan Stojadinović became the Yugoslav prime minister. Stojadinović charged that the Yugoslav-French relationship was a highly unequal one with French tariffs keeping Yugoslav agricultural products out while French manufacturers dominated the industrial market of Yugoslavia.. Stojadinović came to view closer economic relations with Germany as Yugoslavia's salvation from the Great Depression, and moved Yugoslavia closer to the Reich.

Minister In Prague

From 3 June 1935 to 26 March 1936, Naggiar served as the French minister-plenipotentiary to Czechoslovakia. During his time in Prague, Naggiar tried to effect a reconciliation between France's two quarreling Eastern European allies, Poland and Czechoslovakia. In January 1936, Naggiar reported to Paris that the Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš was highly worried about the possibility that Germany might remilitarize the Rhineland in the near-future. As long as the Rhineland was demilitarized, there was a possibility of French offensive into western Germany should the Reich invade Czechoslovakia, which France signed an alliance with in 1924. If the Rhineland was remilitarized, Germany would be able to fortify the Franco-German border to block any French offensive and shift the entire might of the Wehrmacht against Czechoslovakia, which was the subject was of such concern in Prague.

Ambassador in Nanking

Naggier (second from the left) in China, 1936

Naggiar then served as the French ambassador to China. During his time in China, he was supportive of French efforts to assist with the modernization of China. It was felt by St. Léger that a stronger China would be more able to resist Japan, and that in turn this would protect the French colony of Indochina from Japan. However, Naggiar felt that France should be careful not to provoke Japan too much as believed that China was a very backward nation that would considerable time to modernize.

Ambassador in Moscow

In October 1938, Coulondre-who had been serving as the French ambassador in Moscow-was sent to Berlin. Naggiar was sent to replace Coulondre and arrived in Moscow in February 1939. Naggiar was known as an advocate of closer ties with the Soviet Union to create a counterbalance to Germany. On 8 February 1939, Naggiar first met the Soviet Foreign Commissar Maxim Litvinov. Litvinov, a sophisticated diplomat who spoke fluent French and English, told Naggiar that his country was willing to co-operate with Britain and France to uphold collective security under the banner of the League of Nations, but that "we are not going to beg". The Soviet account, though not the French account, of the meeting had Naggiar saying to Litvinov that he was opposed to the "capitulationist policy" of his government. The next day, Naggiar met the deputy foreign commissar, Vladimir Potemkin, who complained that French foreign policy in Eastern Europe under the Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet was too passive. Naggiar protested that this was a "premature" conclusion to draw, and that France was still engaged in Eastern Europe. Upon reading Naggiar's reports, Bonnet sent "an audacious cable" to Moscow that claimed that he upheld the principle of collective security during the Sudetenland crisis, a message that Naggiar felt was painful to hand over to Litvinov.

Litvinov privately admitted to Naggiar his dismay over the way that the Yezhovshchina ("Yezhov times") had crippled the Narkomindel with many of the best Soviet diplomats executed on spurious charges of treason. Litvinov sadly told Naggiar: "How can I conduct foreign policy with the Lubyanka across the way?" The British historian D.C. Watt described Naggiar as a man who hated the atmosphere in Moscow, but was able to negotiate successfully with the Narkomindel by "cutting through formulas". As Joseph Stalin was only the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, he held no position in the Soviet government and as such, Naggiar rarely saw him. Stalin was a rather mysterious character whom the foreigners were not usually allowed to see unless something especially noteworthy was happening. The French historian Jean-Baptiste Duroselle described Naggiar as not have the "same stature" within the Quai d'Orsay comparable to that possessed by Corbin and Coulondre, but that his reports from both China and the Soviet Union showed a "deep understanding" of both nations. Naggiar did not speak Russian, was not allowed to travel outside of Moscow and was constantly watched by the NKVD, which limited his ability to gauge Soviet society in general. Naggiar described his relations with St. Léger as being "loyal, but critically affectionate".

During the Danzig crisis in 1939, Naggiar was an advocate of the "peace front" as the proposed alliance of the Soviet Union, France and Britain that was intended to deter Germany from invading Poland. On 4 May 1939, Litvinov was sacked as Foreign Commissar and replaced with Vyacheslav Molotov. Naggiar described Molotov as being very different from Litvinov who at least tried to be friendly, unlike the "hard man" Molotov who was utterly devoid of any warmth. Naggiar reported that Molotov had a "rude simplicity" in his manners and was intentionally obnoxious. The dominant impression Naggiar had of Molotov was of a very hard, ruthless man who never smiled. Naggiar described Molotov asn having a stern, cold manner as hate and rage were the seemingly the only emotions he was capable of expressing, but that he was extremely tenacious in his negotiating style and had a good understanding of the issues despite having been abroad only once. Molotov could read some French, but he spoke French very badly, and preferred to speak in Russian with a deputy translating for him. Potemkin who was fluent in both French and English usually served as Molotov's translator, a position that Potemkin found humiliating, which led him to lash out against the British and French diplomats he translated for. Naggiar reported that Molotov wanted a full military alliance as "the new commissar now intends to obtain more extensive advantages". In a report to Bonnet, Naggiar charged that frequent leaks from the Quai d'Orsay to the Paris newspapers were making the talks more difficult as the "spectacular publicity" of the leaks had caused the always suspicious Soviets to be even more paranoid than usual. Naggiar's relations with Bonnet were difficult as Bonnet was deeply suspicious of him.

Naggiar believed that Poland was too weak to defend itself against Germany and would require the help of the Soviet Union. In turn, he was highly critical of the Polish Foreign Minister Colonel Józef Beck who refused to grant the Red Army transit rights in the event of a German invasion under the grounds that the Red Army would not leave Poland. Naggiar warned Paris that he believed if the issue of transit rights were not resolved, it was possible that the Soviet Union might reach an agreement with Germany instead. Naggiar argued that the best way of preventing the Danzig crisis from escalating into a war was a "classical" military alliance with the Soviet Union. Naggiar felt it would be better if Colonel Beck along with King Carol II of Romania were to willingly grant the Red Army transit rights, but that the issue of transit rights should be not allowed to wreck the talks for the "peace front". Naggiar charged that Bonnet's tactic of reaching a political agreement first before signing a military convention while not addressing the issue of the transit rights was designed to ensure that the "peace front" talks failed. In a report to Bonnet, Naggiar wrote: "The puerile idea is that we will force Hitler to back down with words, without the only reality which will cause him to reflect: the assent of Poland to a military accord with Russia". In another report, Naggiar wrote: "London and Paris continue not to want to understand what is essential in these negotiations: a military agreement which would permit Russia to make geographic contact with Germany to replicate the military conditions of 1914". On 1 and 3 June 1939, Naggiar along with the British ambassador Sir William Seeds met with Molotov to concede on many of the Soviet demands as the price of an alliance. The second meeting was joined by Sir William Strang, the director of the Foreign Office's Central Department, who been sent out from London to facilitate the talks. Molotov sat on a high desk and forced Naggiar, Strang, Seeds and Potemkin to sit on chairs arranged in a semi-circle around his desk. Naggiar, Strang and Seeds were were not provided with level surfaces and were forced to write their notes of the meeting on their knees despite a conference table being besides Molotov's desk. There was a doorway leading to another room that was always open in Molotov's office, which was apparently meant to symbolize that the Soviet Union was still open to an agreement. Watt noted that Molotov "seemed quite impervious to argument" as he announced bluntly that an alliance would be on Soviet terms.. On 2 June 1939, Molotov presented a draft treaty that committed the Soviet Union, France and Britain to automatically declare war on Germany in the event of aggression against Poland, Romania, Turkey, Greece, Belgium, Latvia, Estonia and Finland..

On 29 June 1939, Andrei Zhdanov, the Communist Party boss of Leningrad and one of the most closest associates of Stalin published an article on the front page of Pravda that accused the French and especially the British of negotiating in bad faith for the "peace front". Naggier reported to Paris that Zhdanov's article was a clear sign of Stalin's displeasure with the tempo of the talks.

In early July, Sir Orme Sargent of the Foreign Office told ambassador Charles Corbin that the "guarantees" given to Poland on 31 March and Romania on 13 April were a mistake as both Poland and Romania stood between Germany and the Soviet Union, which in effect gave a British "guarantee" of the Soviet Union as well and allowed Molotov to be uncompromising. Upon reading Corbin's report of his conversation with Sargent, Naggiar wrote to St. Léger that Sargent's statement was "a little late; to correct this error, Russia's price has to be paid". On 4 August 1939, Potemkin told Naggiar that the head of the Soviet delegation to handle the talks with the expected Anglo-French mission was to be the Defense Commissar, Marshal Kliment Voroshilov, saying that this was a sign that Joseph Stalin was serious about the talks.

Naggiar fourth from the left in China, 19 July 1936 just after having presented his credentials as the ambassadeur de France to Chairman Lin Sen who stands in the center.

On 10 August 1939, a joint Anglo-French military mission jointly commanded by Admiral Sir Reginald Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax and General Joseph Doumenc arrived in Leningrad and on 11 August 1939 in Moscow with orders to finally negotiate the alliance. The decision to have the Anglo-French military mission not to travel via airplane, but instead make the trip from London to Leningrad on a slow moving ship, The City of Exeter that moved at only 13 knots per hour instead being sent on a fast-moving destroyer or cruiser attracted much critical comment in Moscow. Naggiar told General Doumenc that he had been feeling helpless all though the summer of 1939 as the talks had floundered as he felt: "Paris and London wrangled constantly only to yield too late". Naggiar asked Doumenc: "Did you bring something on the passage [rights] across Poland?" Doumenc told Naggiar that Colonel Beck was adamant about not giving the Red Army transit rights and that the issue appeared to be impossible to resolve. Naggiar complained: "They haven't read or understood my dispatches". Naggiar charged that the Soviets would not sign an alliance unless they were granted transit rights into Poland first and the issue had to be confronted.

Naggiar was shocked when Doumenc told him that Admiral Drax's orders were to engage in talks, but to drag them out for as long as possible. Naggiar in a cable to Paris wrote that he felt that the instructions given to Drax were likely to cause the talks to fail and were "dangerous" unless the British "secretly hoped for the failure of the talks". He was especially angry as the British had promised beforehand that Admiral Drax's mandate was to conclude an alliance as soon as possible and now learned the opposite was the case. The orders given to Admiral Drax by the British Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax stated: "The British delegation is to conduct negotiations very slowly, keeping abreast of the political discussions". By contrast, the French favored having the negotiations for the "peace front" concluded as soon as possible. The two differing tempo of negotiations in turn reflected the views held by the British and French governments on the ultimate desirability of reaching an understanding with the Reich or not. For Chamberlain and Lord Halifax along with Bonnet, the mere act of engaging in negotiations with the Soviet Union was believed to be sufficient to deter Germany from invading Poland, and to actually create the "peace front" alliance was felt to be counterproductive as it would make it more difficult to reach a "general settlement" with Germany. For most French decision-makers, the "peace front" was believed to be the only way of deterring Germany from invading Poland, and both Daladier and St. Léger, though not Bonnet, had little hope of the same sort of understanding with Germany that the British wanted.

Leading the Soviet delegation was Marshal Voroshilov who told Admiral Drax and General Doumenc on 14 August that without transit rights into Poland, an alliance would be impossible as he insisted that his government would only sign an alliance if the transit rights were granted first. Voronshilov stated that under the Anglo-French offer, the Soviet Union would be obliged to declare war on Germany if the Reich invaded Poland, but that the Red Army would not be allowed to enter Poland, which would ensure that Soviet Union would be invaded next as Voronshilov had no confidence in the ability of Poland to defeat Germany. Marshal Voronshilov argued that in his view as a professional soldier, it would be better for the Red Army to engage the Wehrmacht in Poland to wage a "forward defense". Naggiar wrote to Paris that the maximum pressure had to be applied on Colonel Beck as the transit rights issue was on the verge of causing the talks to collapse. As the talks in Moscow floundered over the issue of transit rights, on 21 August 1939, General Doumnec received orders from Paris to sign a military accord, with or without transit rights across Poland. Naggiar responded by writing back "too late!"

On 23 August 1939, the German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop arrived in Moscow via aeroplane, where he was greeted as a honored guest. After completing the talks with Molotov, Ribbentrop went to the Kremlin to see Stalin and Molotov where he signed the German-Soviet non-aggression pact. The fact that Ribbentrop was received by Stalin at the Kremlin was as Watt noted a sign that "he passed the test" as foreigners were usually not allowed to meet Stalin. As photographs appeared of Molotov and Ribbentrop signing the non-aggression pact while being watched by a smiling Stalin, Naggiar recalled feeling very depressed and heartbroken. In response to the news of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, Colonel Beck told the French ambassador in Warsaw Léon Noël: "Really not much has changed". Upon reading Noël's report, Naggiar wrote: "One cannot imagine anything more insane".

Later life

From May 18 to June 3, 1943, he led a French delegation to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Hot Springs, Virginia. In 1946, Naggiar was a member of the French delegation to the United Nations General Assembly and established the Far East Committee

Books and articles

• Adriano, Pino; Cingolani, Giorgio (2018). Nationalism and Terror Ante Pavelic and Ustasha Terrorism from Fascism to the Cold War. Budapest: Central European University Press. ISBN 978-963-386-206-3.
• Alexander, Martin S. (1992). The Republic in Danger General Maurice Gamelin and the Politics of French Defence, 1933-1940. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-52429-2.
• Duroselle, Jean-Baptiste (2004). France and the Nazi threat: the collapse of French diplomacy 1932-1939. New York, NY. ISBN 1-929631-15-4. OCLC 55589798.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Farley, Brigit (2007). "King Aleksandar and the Royal Dictatorship in Yugoslavia". In In Bernd J. Fischer (ed.). Balkan Strongmen: Dictators and Authoritarian Rulers of Southeastern Europe. West Lafayette: Central European Studies. pp. 51–86..
• Hunter, Olivia (Spring 2017). "Crime and Security in Shanghai's French Concession, 1919-1937". The Earlham Historical Journal. XI (2).
• Morton, W. H.; Feldwick, W. (1917). Present Day Impressions of the Far East and Prominent and Progressive Chinese at Home and Abroad The History, People, Commerce, Industries and Resources of China, Hongkong, Indo-China, Malaya and Netherlands India. London: Globe Encyclopedia.
• Carley, Michael Jabara (1999). 1939: The Alliance That Never Was and the Coming of World War II. Ivan Dee: Chicago.
• Leutner, Mechtild (2020). "Chinese Visas for European Refugees, Marseilles, 1940/1941: An (Almost) Forgotten Example of International Solidarity". In Nele Noesselt (ed.). China's New Silk Road Dreams. Berlin: Lit Verlag. pp. 144–161. ISBN 978-3-643-91349-4.
• Taylor, Tedford (1979). Munich The Price of Peace. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 9780394744827.
• Wandycz, Piotr Stefan (2014). The Twilight of French Eastern Alliances, 1926-1936 French-Czechoslovak-Polish Relations from Locarno to the Remilitarization of the Rhineland. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9781400859818.
• Watt, Donald Cameron (1989). How war came: the immediate origins of the Second World War, 1938-1939. London: Heinemann. ISBN 0-434-84216-8. OCLC 19269229.