SECTION V.—Alsace-Lorraine
The high contracting powers, recognizing the moral obligation to redress the wrong done by Germany in 1871, both to the rights of France and to the wishes of the population of Alsace and Lorraine, which were separated from their country in spite of solemn protests of their representatives of the Assembly of Bordeaux, 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 the 26th February, 1871, and the treaty of Frankfort on the 10th May, 1871, are restored to French sovereignty as from the date of the armistice of the 11th November, 1918.
The provisions of the treaties establishing the delimination of the frontiers before 1871 shall be restored.
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 date to recognize 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 4 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 the 11th November, 1918. From 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 have been recognized as possessing this quality, whether by the French administrative authorities or by a judicial decision.