Algerian A partheid
TT is surprising how little attention has been I paid here to the broadcast made by M. Debre, the French Prime Minister, when he returned to Paris last week from his brief visit to Algeria' This was the first time that the i's had been officially dotted and the t's authoritatively crossed of President de Gaulle's declaration last Septa' ber of the policy of self-determination for Algeria. Secession, declared the Prime Minister, means partition. In other words, if the Moslems of Algeria wish to govern their country in their own way, they are to be denied the ports and the productive capacity that would make that economically possible. The colons, on the other hand. are to be rewarded for their intransigence by being granted the richest region of Algeria and spared the economic responsibility for the poorest. This would be a North African apartheid as senseless as South Africa's—and as impossible, in the long run. to maintain.
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