The Press FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1960. The Algerian Drama

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29389, 16 December 1960, Page 16

The Press FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1960. The Algerian Drama

General de Gaulle has long been accustomed to turning defeat into victory; but will it always be so? The Algerian war, which resulted in his recall to power, may easily be his downfall He is 70 years of age and in recent months even he has been aware of the inadequacy of his policy of “ gradualism ’’ in Algeria. Admittedly the socal reforms on which he pins his faith are beginning to bear fruit, though slowly. But as long as Algeria is racked by civil war—its toll is already about 400,000 persons —economic development must take second place to pacification in the queue for men and money. The collapse of tentative negotiations with Mr Ferhat Abbas’s rebels temporarily halted General de Gaulle in his efforts to end the war. The approach of the United Nations’ annual debate on Algeria and markedly increased interest by Moscow, Peking, and the Afro-Asian bloc could scarcely fail to aggravate French anxieties, in spite of the General’s habitual detachment from such mundane worries.

Events have moved swiftly since General de Gaulle announced the holding of a referendum on January 8 in both France and Algeria to determine the latter’s constitutional future. Opposition from the French Right Wing was immediately aroused. To round off the drama, Pierre Lagaillarde and three others of the principal accused at the “Algerian plot” trial in Paris escaped to Spain, where (so far as is known) they still enjoy political asylum. Apparently unshaken in his resolve to give Algerians the right to selfdetermination, General de Gaulle prepared for another tour of Algeria to recruit support for peace and his policy; but because of European extremist hatreds he accepted an itinerary that avoided the main cities, where the settler groups are strongest. Meanwhile, the incidental action of the drama

was being played out in New York; and the United Nations is still being used by the anticolonialists as a forum for condemning French conduct in Algeria. The latest outbreaks of violence in Algiers and Oran were not unexpected; European extremism, whipped up by news of Mr Lagaillarde’s escape, had succeeded in arresting the Moslems’ drift towards an understanding with General de Gaulle, and in reinforcing Moslem commitments to the rebel cause. General de Gaulle’s decision to cut short his Algerian tour could be interpreted as acknowledgement of a tactical reverse rather than an outright defeat The General returned to a France in which his political security appears to have been enhanced by popular disgust that Right-wing elements continue to be careless of the heavy toll of war and unwilling to submit an unreasoning and outdated pride to the dictates of economic and political necessity. For the ending of the Algerian war is more than ever necessary to the welfare of France. Unless conciliation is soon possible Frenchmen may risk the most formidable contest in their national history. The failure of his latest mission means that General de Gaulle is brought closer to the last chance of an honourable settlement in Algeria. Militarily he is strong; the rebels are probably weaker now in physical resources than ever before. Politically it is the Algerian rebel nationalists who have gained strength—from the Communist bloc and the Afro-Asians in the United Nations. Hope of widespread endorsement for General de Gaulle’s liberal policy has waned. In its place looms fear lest the renewal of Algerian violence may cancel out the solid progress achieved under Gaullist guidance and, by revealing the ultimate folly of French extremism, invite direct intervention by more dangerous and incomparably more powerful international groupings.