ABSTRACT
The broad lines of French colonial policy were studied at the Brazzaville Conference and some general conclusions, embodied in the form of recommendations, were reached. The Laotians and Cambodians are eager to see France, under whose protection they placed themselves, recover for them the provinces of Battambang, Sisophon and Siem-Reap as well as the right bank of the Mekong, which Japan obliged them to cede to Thailand. The political organization of the French Empire reveals a will to preserve as far as possible the authority of France over the affairs of the colonies while at the same time setting up in them wider administrative and economic liberties. A commission of political experts, all men well versed in constitutional and colonial law, met from May to July 1944 to consider, in the light of the recommendations of Brazzaville, the means of integrating the Empire into the French Constitution.
