Security Forces In Algeria Mobilised

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28894, 14 May 1959, Page 15

Security Forces In Algeria Mobilised

(Rec. 10 p.m.) ALGIERS, May 13. French authorities have mobilised security forces for today’s ceremonies marking the first anniversary of the May 13 coup in Algeria, the American Associated Press reported.

It said police and special shock troops were rushed to Algiers last night where the hard core of European Right-wingers intended to make today “a day of mourning.” The Europeans claimed that President de Gaulle had failed to realise the objectives of the coup and planned to abandon Algeria to Moslem nationalist rebels. General Jacques Massu, who led the rising by the French settlers and the French Army in Algeria a year ago, made urgent broadcast appeals for calmness tomorrow, according to British United Press. In an appeal broadcast every hour, he urged Frenchmen and Moslems to gather at the Algiers forum, scene of the May 13 rising, to demonstrate their loyalty for General de Gaulle. He said: “The price of victory is our unity, our ferocious determination tq form a bloc.” The French Army stepped up efforts to mobilise Moslem participation in the ceremonies. Loudspeaker vans criss-crossed the city, blaring appeals for a mass turn-out. The ceremonies are organised by the Army and civilian authorities to demonstrate “the unity of the Army and the people.” They are seen in Algiers as an attempt to “steal the thunder” from the extremists, some of whom plan to hold their own demonstrations.

More than a dozen European movements, including restive students led by a Parliamentary deputy, have made plans for a boycott of the celebrations. Some of them will hold a “day of mourning” instead. Last night, the extremists demonstrated with shouts of “De Gaulle to the Gallows.” Today they smeared slogans on walls saying: “De Gaulle Equals the Rebels,” and “De Gaulle Equals Rottenness ” “Rebels Cannot Win”

In Paris last night, the French Prime Minister (Mr Michel Debre) said that the Algerian insurgents could no longer win and they knew it. He offered to co-operate in building the future Algeria “with those of our adversaries who agree to understand that France has changed.” Speaking in a radio and television broadcast on the eve of the anniversary, he said France intended to pacify Algeria and develop it economically, socially, and intellectually. The anniversary marked “a will for rupture with the past, a will for fraternisation, a will for recovery and for better tomorrows,” he said.

Referring to what he called the “hopelessness of the rebellion,” Mr Debre said: “Obliged to take refuge in blind assassination, obliged to take up arms against civilians and isolated farms, the only refuge of the rebellion is. from now on, in a world victory of barbarism. “Our strength is such that we can successfully carry out this work of tomorrow even with those of our adversaries who agree to understand that France has changed.”