MARGINAL COMMENT
By HAROLD NICOLSON
JAM writing this article at Algiers while waiting for an aeroplane I to take me to Tunis. The huts which surround the aerodrome are crowded with service men from every continent, among whom we civilians cower ashamedly. The sun is hot upon the iron roof et the hut, but through the wide open doors come the roar of count- less machines and enormous puffs of sudden dust. I had been assured, before I came here, that I should find Algiers an unhappy city ; I had heard stories of starvation among the poor and of a black market organised with secret ingenuity to minister to the desires of the powerful and the rich. I gather that the poorer Europeans in A!giers are in fact under-fed ; but I have not noticed any outward appearances of starvation. Even when I.observed an Arab poking with a bamboo stick among the garbage-tins I was assured that he had probably sold his ration cards and had nobody to blame except himself. It is difficult to believe that any real scarcity can exist. The country around Algiers, in this lush late April weather, seems to luxuriate in all the produce of the soil. Wheat, oats and barley wave in the soft breeze ; the huge market-gardens, which in peace-time provided early vegetables for Marseilles or Paris, can now devote their riches to local needs: the dates are cheap and plentiful ; the vines are green and fresh upon the terraced hills. Unhappiness, in such surroundings, must be the fault, not of nature, but of man.
* * * * Inevitably, the feeling of tense expectancy which has hung over the world for so many anxious weeks is not creative of much natural gaiety. For the French this period of waiting has become almost intolerable, and their ears are strained beyond endurance to catch the coming sound of cannon in the north. The Algerian colonist could scarcely be expected to relish the invasion of his country by the armies of two nations or to remain uncomplaining when his villas, his gardens and his amenities are taken from him, either by foreigners or else by the soldiers and politicians of metropolitan France. He finds himself unable to sell as he might sell ; and there is nothing whatsoever which he can buy. An economic and racial situation of some difficulty is likely to arise in future years. And the Free French, who have crowded into the city, living often in circum- stances of acute congestion and discomfort, can scarcely stifle their impatience to leave this temporary capital or restrain their deep concern for those who endure starvation and danger in France itself. Such conditions would in any case be liable to create a state of exasperation, and the French are by temperament neither very equable nor very patient. No sympathetic observer could fail, how- ever, to be impressed by the dignity with which they face the situa- tion or by the self-confidence which they are now beginning to recover. Considering the ordeals through which they have passed, considering the deep personal anxieties by which so many of them are still tortured, they display an admirable fortitude. I do not find Algiers an unhappy city, since I have found here, unmistakably, the seeds of French regeneration. They know that among these hills, facing their familiar sea, they have recovered their honour, their courage and their soul.
* * * * It is encouraging, for instance, to notice how the old feelings of rancour, which have had such sad results, seem slowly to be dis- solving under the spell of coming events. The elements of dissension, which were at one time so active, appear to be on the decline. The National Committee, after its recent reformation, is adjusting itself
to effective constructive labours. The Consultative Assembly is
gradually discovering its own formula, and it is noticeable that this formula is already diverging markedly from that of the old Paris Chambers. The deputies at Algiers adopt towards each other a
manner more comradely and less provocative than was customary in the Palais Bourbon. The old habits of desk-slamming and ink-pot
throwing are being discarded in favour of the quieter and more courteous manners of our own House of Commons. More significant even is the adoption by the Consultative Assembly of our own system of Parliamentary Questions, an innovation which is ascribed to Monsieur Andre Philip, and which, once the correct technique has been established, should do much to bridge the gap between the Legislature and the Executive. Meanwhile the relations between the Assembly and the National Committee are unexpectedly har- monious, and the prestige which General de Gaulle enjoys with all parties is most impressive. The General has surprised even his warmest admirers by the speed with which he has adapted himself to what is rapidly developing into a Parlimentary system and the skill with which he maintains the balance, and secures the support, of the several political leaders. They feel towards him a sense of deep gratitude for his inspired stand in 1940, and the manner in which he has been able, by his example and leadership, to create in France and outside a vast movement of resistance. They regard him as the symbol of France's recovery and as something more: they regard him as the leader who in war and politics can guide them through the rocks and reefs and back once again to the haven of their own democracy. * *
In Algiers today there is a sense of firm and carefully planned construction. The National Committee is beginning to acquire the authority and the self-confidence of an effective Government. The Assembly, conscious as they are of their undoubted representative quality, are acquiring a sober sense of their own responsibilities. The armed forces are being trained and equipped with resolute efficiency. And above all there is the Resistance Movement, about which we in England do not know enough. For the French Re- sistance has grown in these years from something which was little more than an underground activity executed desperately by a few desperate men into an organisation which today leads and directs unquestionably all that is noblest in the French nation. It is un- fortunate thai, owing to the needs of security, the British people cannot be informed of the real nature of the movement or of the hold which it has today upon the men and women of France. It is not a conspiracy of a few heroic men ; it is the disciplined ex- pression of the will-power of the whole French people. These brave young men, these incredibly heroic women, are building up in France a legend such as will compare in after • years with the finest legends of all French history. It is to their strong brown hands that eventually will be entrusted the future of France ; it is in their clear and un- flinching eyes that one can read the endurance, the resolution and the faith which once again will restore France to her proud place in the councils of the world. I have heard stories since I have been here, stories of terror and heroism, which have left me agape with admiration. Nobody could listen to these stories and fail to be convinced that from this Resistance movement is being born a France, younger, stronger and cleaner, than any France of the last hundred years.
What is above all strange and moving about these young men, most of whom will be going back to face again the dangers from which they have escaped, is that in them at least the emotions of rancour, hatred and revenge have been fused into higher metals. They have been tortured, but they do not wish to torture ; they have met with treachery and unfaithfulness, but they indulge in no recriminations ; they have endured agony for the sake of their country, but they are not chauvinist. Their sufferings and adven- tures have brought them very close to those who in other occupied countries have passed through the same ordeals. They believe pro- foundly that those who have worked in the underground in any country are bound together by a bond of very special significance ; that they are different somehow from other people, similar in some secret manner to each other. They know that only the highest idealism, only the greatest altruism, could have enabled them to endure the perils which they affronted or to bear without quailing the torture or the massacre of their friends. They wish to preserve these qualities for peace. They have endured cruelty such as has never been known ; they are determined to secure that henceforward cruelty shall be banished from the earth.
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