Terrorist group “French Presence” targeting national resistance movements

Like any country that has suffered from the injustice and oppression of the colonizers and post-colonial repression, Morocco has its secret organizations. Small groups sometimes intend to fight against the French and Spanish protectorates, and sometimes intend to make life difficult for the late King Hassan II. Most surprisingly, there are organizations composed of Europeans who carry out operations in Morocco against national resistance movements, such as the “French Presence”.

The history of the national anti-colonial struggle, from 1912 to 1956, can be divided into several phases. The era before independence remains undoubtedly the most intense and deadly, written by the French, determined to maintain power in Morocco, and the resistance, eager for freedom. From 1950, as tensions between Moroccans and colonial powers increased, the national resistance decided to take a crucial step; that of armed struggle.

The Mers Sultan bomb and the end of the myth of coexistence between Moroccans and Europeans

This new phase was first marked by a point of no return: the exile of Sultan Mohammed Ben Youssef and the royal family on August 20, 1953. Subsequently, the national resistance movement signed several acts: Assassination attempt on Ben Arafat The explosion of the martyr Allal Ben Abdellah on September 11, 1953; the bomb blast in the central market of Casablanca on December 24, 1953; the assassination attempt on the powerful Thami El-Glaoui on February 20, 1954; and even Sudan Sea Bomb July 14, 1954. This year was particularly marked by an increase in actions against figures of the Protectorate.

Riots between Moroccans and police in Mersultan on July 16. / Ph. Rue des Archives – Granger, New York City

On July 14, 1955, Moulay Driss, Si Bouchta, El Haj Hassan Amzough, Jilali Fikri and other less famous resistance fighters placed a bomb before leaving the Mers Sultan café. The result: six Europeans dead and about thirty injured. Fear will be replaced by riots among Moroccans on the one hand; law enforcement and Europeans on the other. In his work “Morocco Confronts Imperialism: 1415-1956» (Editions JA, 1978), historian Charles-André Julien said the attack led to bloody reprisals throughout the Sharif Kingdom. In Casablanca, “French people from the Maarif region spontaneously formed a group and then wandered the streets, waving anti-Moroccan slogans, destroying shop facades and throwing stones at Moroccans. They even tried to force their way into the headquarters of the Moroccan Press Agency,” he reported.

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But the “spontaneous” formation of this group remains doubtful, since historical facts show that there was not one nucleus of the group described by historians as the “French Presence”. In fact, this secret organization was born long before July 1955. The Mers Sultan bomb will reveal above all that the coexistence between Europeans and Moroccans, so highly praised by the protectorate, is very fragile.

Before returning to the birth of this secret organization, we must first discuss some of the aspects that contributed to its development. If the organization acted publicly on the day of the Mersultan bomb explosion, the doctrine had already been nourished for months by the media set up in Morocco against the French, in particular those belonging to the Mas Press Group, named after its owner, Pierre Mas. A holding company founded in 1919 that subsequently acquired and created several newspapers such as “Le Petit marocain”, “l’Echo du Maroc” or “la Vigie marocaine”. Volume VII of Memory of the Moroccan Heritage (Organisation Nord Press, 1986).

La Une de Maroc Presse, July 18, 1954. /Ph. “Memory of Moroccan Heritage”

This secret organization was born to fight the national resistance and take revenge on their leaders and liberals who supported the independence of Morocco. It was then led by Dr. Georges Caus, president of the Association “French Presence”, a non-governmental organization with the same name as the secret organization.

The French Presence, a sect and armed group financed by several key figures

From the day of the Mersultan bomb blast, the French Presence launched a massive recruitment operation through leaflets calling on France to help them stay in Morocco “from today onwards”.

Later revelations would make it possible to discover that this secret organization was financed by great figures of the Protectorate and its disciples, and that its members included police officers, businessmen and agents working for French intelligence, reports Charles-André Julien.

Charles-André Julien also reported that the sect would benefit from Georges Causs’s good reputation among Europeans in the Maarif and Roches-Noires regions to strengthen the ranks of the group. Then assassinations and operations were carried out against Moroccans, as well as French. “The assurance of escaping (judicial) prosecution (editor’s note, due to the presence of well-known police officers in the group) made the pursuit of these people a task both exciting and safe. The terrorists even proposed assassinating celebrities, especially French, whose liberalism tended to treason, or to scare modernists who claimed to be afraid to see Casablanca turned into Chicago,” the historian wrote in his book “Memory of the Moroccan Heritage” Stories told in Arabic.

Multiple actions against French liberals

Among the most famous actions of the “French Presence”, 50 operations, 12 assassinations and 38 injured were disclosed in November 1954. This was the so-called “Bugell” incident, whose members were arrested on June 20, 1955. The bombing of the Place de France in Casablanca on March 20, 1955 and the bullet assassination of Jacques Lemaigre Dubreuil, owner of the Lesieur company, in Casablanca on the night of June 11, 1955 were also attributed to the same organization. There”Coordination letter from the French Embassy in Morocco» In 2006 it was reported that the latter would be one of the French who would “accelerate the end of the French protectorate regime in Morocco”.

Louis Damiani’s confession directly implicated the policemen Luigi and Melero, as well as four former followers of the Présence Française, led by Dr. Georges Causse, in Congo in December 1962. They benefited from being dismissed from their posts during July 1965, despite their involvement in the assassination attempt on Mendes-France (Pierre Mendes-France was President of the French Council of Ministers from June 1954 to February 1955, editor’s note). Funeral Mass for Lemaigre Dubreuil, “continues the source.

Allegedly a member of the “French Presence”. / PhD “Memory of Moroccan Heritage”

While the “French Presence” would succeed in dealing a heavy blow to the national resistance by targeting its most active members and the key events of a brief period in Moroccan history, another form of resistance was slowly brewing in northern Morocco. October 2, 1955Afterwards, the National Liberation Army (ALN) will take over several clandestine groups opposed to the Protectorate, launching its first operations against the French troops in Akenur, Tiziwasli and Bourd. The ALN groups will conduct coordinated attacks on colonial army posts. The resistance fighters will inflict heavy human and material losses on the French occupation forces, especially in Jbel Lakraâ, Bouscourt, Tizi and Darén. The “French presence”, like the Protectorate, knows that now the final step has been taken, and only a few steps away from Morocco’s independence.