REBELS IN FRANCE

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28434, 14 November 1957, Page 15

REBELS IN FRANCE

270 Held In Big Raid

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) PARIS, Nov. 12. Police swooped throughout France today in a co-ordinated bid to net Algerian insurgent leaders and commando chiefs operating in metropolitan territory.

The police rounded up 270 persons. Those arrested, police said, included collectors for the National Liberation Front, prominent members of the insurgent organisation and killer groups.

Police said arms, documents and large amounts of funds collected from Algerian workers were seized.

The biggest single number of arrests, 33, was in the greater Paris area. Twenty-six Nationalists were arrested in the Nord department, and 25 in the Loire department of central France.

The Interior Minister, Mr Maurice Bourges-Maunoury, told the National Assembly today that rival Algerian Nationalist movements are waging a “battle of extermination” in France in which 500 persons have been murdered and more than 2000 wounded this year. Special Powers Renewed The National Assembly renewed the Government’s special powers to combat Algerian Nationalist activities, both in France and in Algeria, by 354 votes to 216. The special powers, which were first extended to metropolitan France last July, authorise the Government to intern indefinitely any person convicted for carrying illegal arms, reviving organisations declared illegal or acting

against the security of the State. The period of preventive detention for people suspected of such offences has been increased from five to 21 days, and night searches can be authorised.

A deadly feud is being waged on French territory between agents of the National Liberation Front, which levies “taxes” on Algerians to help ’ finance the three-year-old • insurrection at home, and the rival Algerian National Movement.

Mr Bourges-Maunoury told the Assembly: “The blow we have struck (against the insurgents) in Algeria has led the rebels to seek to open a new front in metropolitan France.” He added the warning that there were some signs that the present situation could lead to counterterrorism in France “with unforeseeable consequences.”

Since Parliament extended the special powers to metropolitan France last July, he said, police had made 1329 arrests, carried out identity checks of 97,000 people in public places, and made night searches of 727 buildings. The authorities had closed down 101 cafes and hotels and assigned 329 Algerians to forced residences. Thousands of firearms and knives had been seized.