In Lyon, where the National Council of the Reformed Church had convened before the end of 1940, Rev. Bertrand informed Rev. Boegner that the Council of the Protestant Federation wanted a written protest without delay. It was agreed, however, that Rev. Boegner should continue with his oral interventions for some time longer. But when the National Council of the Reformed Church reconvened in March, 1941, it was unanimously resolved that the position of the Reformed Church should be set down in writing without delay. It was on these instruction that Rev. Boegner wrote two letters. The first was sent to the Chief Rabbi of France, on March 26, 1941: "The National Council of the Reformed Church of France has just convened for the first time since the law of October 3rd, 1940, came into force. It has instructed me to express to you the grief we all feel at the introduction of racial legislation in our country, and at the trials and innumerable injustices which it has brought upon the French Jews. There are some among us who have thought that the State has been faced with a great problem as a result of the extensive immigration of a large number of foreigners - Jews and non-Jews - and by hasty and unjustifiable naturalisations, but they have always expressed the conviction that this problem should be handled with the respect due to human beings; with strict adherence to State undertakings; and in accordance with the demands of justice which France has always championed. They are all the more distressed because of the rigorous enforcement of a law which, applying exclusively to Jews, makes no distinction between Jews who have been Frenchmen for many generations, in many cases for centuries, and between those who received their citizenship only yesterday. Our Church which has in the past known all the sufferings of persecution, harbours feelings of warmest sympathy for your communities whose freedom of worship in certain places has already been restricted and whose faithful members have so suddenly been afflicted with misfortune. It has already taken steps - which it will not fail to pursue vigorously - for the necessary repeal of the law." [324] This letter shows hesitation: it considers the "extensive immigration of a large number of foreigners" as a problem and creates the impression that the French Protestants cared less for the Jews who had "received their citizenship only yesterday" than for the Jews who had been Frenchmen for many generations. <139> The same applies to the letter sent to Admiral Darlan, also on March 26, 1941: