CALL TO ARMS IN ALGERIA

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30264, 17 October 1963, Page 17

CALL TO ARMS IN ALGERIA

Verbal Attack On Hassan (N.ZJ’.A.-Reuter—Copyright) ALGIERS, October 16. Thousands of Algerians were expected to flock to the colours today in response to President Ahmed ben Bella’s call for‘general mobilisation. This follows fighting on the Moroccan border. Immediately after the President’s proclamation last night, the first 250 men turned up at recruiting centres in Constantine, Eastern Algeria.

The President told cheering crowds in the Algiers forum that reinforcements were on their way to the border. There, 400 Algerian soldiers were holding the posts of Hassi Beida and Tinjoub in the face of an attack by 4000 Moroccan troops.

The President’s two special envoys were returning to Algiers early today to report on their talks in Marrakesh with King Hassan II of Morocco and his Ministers. Some Algerian Government departments stayed open all night as key Ministeries set up new offices to deal with the emergency. The Algerian reinforcements are being led by Algeria's top expert on desert warfare. Colonel Chabani. In Constantine, an angry Algerian mob last night smashed windows of the United States cultural centre.

The demonstrators gathered in front of the centre after Algiers Radio reported American pilots were flying Moroccan troop transports. The allegation was denied by both the United States air mission in Morocco and the State Department in Washington.

In a violent attack on Morocco. but without mentioning King Hassan by name. Mr ben Bella declared: “We tell this tyrant who is responsible for the bloodshed by Moroccans and Algerians: You are a criminal.” "Brothers,” Mr ben Bella continued, “the Algerian people will rise like one man to defend our Socialist State against attacks from within and without.

“We will show the world that our determination, which crushed all the forces of France, fears no-one.”

Mr ben Bella repeatedly accused Morocco’s leaders of spear-heading a “neo-colon-ialist” plot to destroy Algeria’s socialist revolution. Earlier today a Moroccan spokesman in Marrakesh said fighting along the border had spread beyond Hassi Beida and Tinjoub.

He claimed the pests were in Moroccan hands, and were being counter-attacked by the Algerians. The Algerians deny losing the posts, and say the Moroccans have been pushed back beyond these two points. Algerian press, radio and official statements today, for the first time, put the responsibility for the crisis on King Hassan.

Algiers Radio wished "misery, failure, devastaitiion, and ruins to the feudal (Moroccan) palace and victory to the struggling Arab people everywhere.” Algeria claims the fighting is on the Algerian side of the border, but the Moroccans refuse to recognise the border. They say it was illegally drawn by the French. In his speech. President ben Bella appealed to local authorities in western Algeria to mobilise transport fenvolunteers.

Reuter said more than 100,000 cheering people packed Algiers to hear the President.

Reports later began filtering into the city of volunteers seeking arms. President ben Bella called on the people of Algiers to attend national funerals for

the •‘martyrs’’ of the frontier and the Kabylia revolt. He poured scorn on the Moroccan regime as one which still permitted foreigners to own land. i If Morocco wished to help its people, he suggested, it should “grab one million hectares of land which belongs to the colons” (French settlers). British United Press quoted i officials as saying the crowd; at the Algiers forum tonight i numbered between 120,000 and 150,000. Six recruiting offices opened tonight in Constantine, East Algeria. There were demonstrations there in favour of the President. Former guerrillas were volunteering for front-line duty, the agency added. Usually well - informed sources quoted by Reuter said the proclamation may produce a force of up to 200,000 men. The sources recalled that the Algerian National Liberation Army, immediately after independence, was estimated to number about 120,000 guerrillas. War veterans and the present Algerian army would make up the rest. The Algerian army is believed to number between 30,000 and 60,000 men.