22 Facts About Marius Moutet

Marius Moutet was a French Socialist diplomat and colonial adviser.

Marius Moutet was sympathetic to Ho Chi Minh and advocated the independence of Vietnam.

At the age of 92, Moutet was the oldest member of the Senate of France and the French Assembly.

Marius Moutet came from a mixed Protestant-Catholic family of Rhone valley wine merchants.

Marius Moutet studied at the Lycee of Macon and then at the Lycee Henri IV, in Paris.

Marius Moutet was a member of the Socialist Students in Lyon, and the Independent Socialists in 1895.

In July 1914, with the support of Jean Jaures during his candidacy, Marius Moutet was elected as a member of the Chamber of Deputies, representing the Vaise neighbourhood of Lyon.

Marius Moutet was re-elected deputy again for Rhone in 1919 and 1924, but was defeated in 1928 by the Republican-Socialist Party candidate.

Marius Moutet became a specialist on questions related to the French colonial empire, advocating a generous policy of assimilation, opposing brutal repression and condescending paternalism.

Marius Moutet was an advocate for independence in Vietnam and friendly towards Ho Chi Minh.

Marius Moutet served as Minister of the Colonies in the Popular Front governments of 1936 to 1938 under Leon Blum government and Camille Chautemps.

Marius Moutet faced difficult colonial issues such as removing the prisons in French Guiana.

Marius Moutet ordered the colonial administrators to view famine not as inevitable but as a scourge to be combated following the survey from June 1936 to February 1937.

Marius Moutet stepped up initiatives to associate the colonized people to the administration within their territory.

Marius Moutet called for the first time that a black resident, Felix Eboue, become Governor of the Guadeloupe and the French Equatorial Africa.

Marius Moutet voted for amnesty and the independence of Vietnam.

Marius Moutet subsequently went underground and took refuge in Switzerland from 1941 to avoid arrest, with one of his sons being confined to his place in Vals-les-Bains by the Vichy government in retaliation.

Marius Moutet was president of the General council of Drome until 1951.

Marius Moutet held the Minister of Overseas France position under Felix Gouin, Georges Bidault, Blum's third government, and Paul Ramadier.

Marius Moutet negotiated with Ho Chi Minh and founded Le fonds d'investissement des departements d'outre-mer.

Marius Moutet served for the Drome department from 1948, first in the Council of the Republic under the Fourth Republic, and then in the Senate under the Fifth Republic up his death.

At the age of 92, Marius Moutet was the oldest member of the Senate of France and the French Assembly.