North African Realities
T AST week's Rabat meeting between the La foreign ministers of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia seems to have had as its main purpose the lowering of tension between the two latter states, with Morocco acting as a mediator. Rela- tions between Algiers and Tunis had been strained by the harbouring in Algeria of fol- lowers of Salah ben Youssef who were thought to be plotting against M. Bourguiba's govern- ment. Now an agreement seems to have been reached by which the Tunisian exiles will remain in Algeria, but not be allowed to carry on politi- cal activities. M. Bourguiba will gain a respite, and the tottering edifice of North African unity have its cracks plastered over yet once more. The modest results of the Rabat meeting are welcome, but they are far from putting into practice what was envisaged at the Tangier con- ference in 1958: a Maghrebian confederation with common policies in all domains. What has come out of Rabat is pious lip-service to this ideal and a mutual decision on the part of Algeria and Tunisia to abstain from plotting against each other. The idea of a confederation was bound to be blocked by political suspicion and fear in Morocco and Tunisia of being landed with the appalling Algerian demographic problem. As compared with Tangier, Rabat marks an awaken- ing to the cold world of North African realities.
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