FRENCH NORTH AFRICA

Grey River Argus, 20 January 1943, Page 5

FRENCH NORTH AFRICA

NEW FRENCH ADMINISTRATOR. LONDON, Jan. 18. Marcel Peyrouten, former Governor of French Morocco and lat.erly Ambassador to the Argentine and Minister accredited to Paraguay, has arrived from South America to take up the Governorship of Algiers, says the British United Press correspondent at' Allied Headquarters. This is under the new regime planned in North Africa and is tantamount to bis being civil administrator througnout North Africa. Mr. ’Charles Collingwood, of tne Columbia (U.S.A.) Broadcasting System said: “It looks as thougn the stage is cleared tor a new deal in French North African politics, there are signs of a’ thorough-going re-ex-amination of Allied policy on the wav Already 7, a new firmness ana decision are evident in our handling of affairs here. For instance we are no longer taking the word of F rench politicians that all the political prisoners are free. , We have set up a commission which is going to find out where the poditical prisoners are whv t’iev are imprisoned, and get them out. When the commission says this or that man it to be treed, ihere >s to be no nonsense about advising ‘or urging the proper French authorities. The man iust released The other day, Mr. MacMillian, British Resident Minister here said: ‘Unequivocably this Government in North Africa is only provisional,’ and on Saturday we wrre told in official circles that General Fthenhower as Commahder-in-Chiet still has complete authority in North Africa. But what is more important than this sign is the firmness that we seem finally to be deciding just what we want to n 0 about French Africa. From the day we put Darlan in power here, our policy suffered because we had no plan. To-day is seems that such a plan is being hammered out.”