After the war he was briefly French Ambassador in Madrid, then for four years administered Alsace-Lorraine, which had been returned from Germany to France.

[6] Gabriel Alapetite acted tactfully but decisively to prevent disturbances, as he had in similar circumstances two years earlier, and only one person died during the strike.

He convinced the President of the Council to threaten to withdraw troops from the mining basin, and this persuaded the companies to accept negotiations.

[1] Shortly after he took up his post, the Tunisian Consultative Conference was expanded to include Muslim and Jewish representatives for the first time.

He wrote that "the moral conquest of the native through medical welfare is a long-term effort" to advance the interests of France in North Africa.

[12] Alapetite inaugurated a monument with a bust of the geologist Philippe Thomas by the sculptor André César Vermare in Sfax on 26 April 1913.

[13][14] Thomas had discovered large deposits of phosphates of lime, which had greatly helped the Tunisian economy.

[16] During World War I (1914–18) in December 1914 Alapetite wrote that German and Ottoman propaganda was convincing the tirailleurs that "the Commander of Believers forbids them to go and get themselves killed for the infidels.

He said that naturalizing the Muslims would be an indirect annexation and would violate the treaties France had made with the Bey of Tunis.

[21] After his retirement Alapetite wrote, "Long experience with Oriental Muslims only allows the European to understand one precise fact about their mentality: that their brain does not reason like ours.

[23] In the fall of 1916 Pierre Roques, Minister of War, wrote to Alapetite suggesting that as part of the drive to recruit natives troops for 1917 it might be sensible to call Tunisian Jews to arms.

If Jews were recruited, France would lose proven Muslim troops for the sake of a Jewish force "that all the current data permits us to consider as mediocre in every regard.

Although Alapetite was willing to make compromises, he could not satisfy the expectations of the Alsatians, and the transfer of powers from his office to the ministries in Paris served to weaken his position.

Prompted by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who wanted to impress the foreign visitors, Alapetite arranged for an exhibition of traditional Alsatian dress at Orangerie Park with over 400 participants to "make these seventy American delegates aware of happy Alsace, French Alsace.