DEPUTIES IN UNIFORM

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30265, 18 October 1963, Page 11

DEPUTIES IN UNIFORM

Ben Bella Suspends Algerian Assembly ( N .Z.P.A .-Reuter—Copyright) ; ALGIERS, October 17. Deputies of the Algerian Assembly are expected to go to the fighting front in Algeria’s conflict with Morocco, after an appeal last night from President Ahmed ben Bella. President ben Bella, wearing battle dress, indefinitely suspended the National Assembly last night and called on every deputy 7 to join the Army to combat “imperialist aggression” from Morocco. The President told the Assembly that “the elected of the people must be in the vanguard” in the “grave situation” which was “menacing the integrity of Algeria and threatening its revolution.” Of the 77 Deputies present, 53 were in Army uniform.

Ail Algerian Government spokesman reported in Colomb Bechar last night that fierce border fighting between Algerian and Moroccan forces continued yesterday. Authorities at the desert town requisitioned for troops a civil airliner which landed from Algiers. The spokesman said the Moroccans were using tanks and planes. The British United Press said both sides were sending reinforcements to the fighting zone. Morocco yesterday sent General Driss Ben Aomar to head its welltrained troops fighting the Algerians. A Moroccan spokesman, Reda Guedira, said last night

that the battlefield had spread beyond the original zone. Reports from Marrakesh, Morocco, said the secret peace talks between an Algerian delegation and the Moroccan authorities were making no progress, according to the Associated Press. Both nations claim the territory around the outposts of Hassi Beida and Tindjoub. Neither showed any sign of being prepared to relinquish this claim.

In Cairo today, the leader of the Moroccan Left-wing National Union of Popular Forces, Mr Mehji Ben Barka, called on Moroccans to cease fighting their "Algerian brothers,” Reuter reported. Supporting Algeria in its struggle against Moroccan “adventurers,” he said the conflict on the Algerian-

Moroccan borders was a “treacherous blow” against the Algerian revolution. Mr Ben Barka said the excuses given by Moroccan leaders for launching a war were “personal and immoral.”