The Press SATURDAY. JULY 21, 1945. Moslem Revolt In Algeria

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24624, 21 July 1945, Page 6

The Press SATURDAY. JULY 21, 1945. Moslem Revolt In Algeria

Nationalist sentiment remains strong in Algeria. The French Minister of the Interior, M. Tixier, admitted as much when he spoke, as reported yesterday, of the Moslem nationalist risings last May.. That revolt, although it had been “grossly and “ systematically exaggerated ”, was “ serious Some 2400 Moslems had been arrested, and 44 so far sentenced to death; something under 20 per cent, of the native population had, directly or indirectly, taken part; and up to 10,000 French troops had been called in to restore order. Fortunately, however, it is possible to believe that the authorities do not seek to check the nationalist movement by force of arms alone, as yesterday’s and earlier accounts might suggest. Instead of exercising indirect rule through native monarchs and Residents, as is done in her neighbouring colonies of Tunisia and Morocco, France divided Algeria into departments, arrondisements, and communes which, like those in the mother country, send deputies and senators to Paris. The educated natives have long confined themselves to protesting against the lois d’exception and to demanding, accordingly, that their status be made equal to that of Frenchmen. Algerian intellectuals, instead of preaching separatism, have demanded that they be given French citizenship, retaining, however, thoir personal status as Moslems, with all the rights under Moslem law which that status presupposes. Thus there developed a movement, unique in North Africa, towards assimilation. That campaign, however, clashed with the activities of the North African Star, a nationalist and revolutionary group founded in 1929 and directed by an associate of the Emir Shekib Arslan, the Lebanese feudal lord who emerged after the las’, war as one of the protagonists of Pan*Arabism. No French Government was able to put the movement down. But the advent of the Blum Popular Front, Government in 1936 brought a new approach. M. Blum believed that the progress of political and religious nationalism as the North African Star represented it could be arrested only if France used against it that movement towards assimilation which Algerian intellectuals and officeholders supported. Accordingly, what was known as the Blum-Viol-lette plan was devised. In December, 1936, M. Blum and his Minister of State without portfolio, M. Viollette, placed before the Chamber of Deputies a bill granting the electoral rights of French citizens to some 22,000 natives chosen from certain specified categories—among them holders of university diplomas, commissioned and non-commissioned officers, certain dignitaries, and farmers and merchants chosen to represent; : their economic groups. These voters were to retain their personal status under Moslem law, as their co-religionists had done in Jugoslavia, Frenclj. India, and Senegal. The Moslem masses in Algeria welcomed the proposal. But the French colonists violently opposed it. Ut. Blum’s Government was short lived; and his successors dared not let the bill be discussed by the deputies. The lead offered by M. Blum was thus rejected, even as the lead he offered in the Leyant was rejected; and the nationalists profited. But the lead was taken up last year by General de Gaulle’s Government. As General Catroux. revealed in October, the Government had decided both to make political concessions to the Moslems and to prepare an ambitious scheme to develop education, housing, and public health. Whether M. Blum s policy continues to flourish is doubtful. If it does, it still faces many difficulties. But if it fails to make ground, France will find her task hard indeed, for the decline of her prestige in the Levant can only have encouraged Algeria’s nationalists.