DEFEAT IN ALGERIA
By DARSIE G1LUE Paris oNS1EUR MOLLET'S defeat by the French of Algiers marks the limitation of the theory on which his Governtnent is built. Boldness is not a certain cure for the general weakness of a minority government. The size of the mob that demonstrated against him proves something else. It is not just a small minority of wealthy settlers that dominates the Europeans of Algeria, and attempts to impose a diehard policy. The ordinary Algerian Frenchman, even in a very modest situation, is understandably intensely frightened at the prospect of coming under the rule of the Arab majority—a majority that is not even led, as in Morocco and Tunisia, by a monarch and an upper Class whose enlightened self-interest provides the basis of a compromise. The amorphous mass of the Algerian Moslems !s even more alarming, while the longer and more firmly estab• fished French minority, a million strong, is, capable of a more violent reaction in instinctive, though not intelligent, self- defence than in the neighbouring territories. The Algerian Problem has been worsened, for the Moslem extremists have an unproved case for not negotiating with the Government which seems too weak to impose its will on the Algerian French. The latter are no nearer than before to'recovering security, and their more moderate spokesmen have been silenced by the suicidal success of the diehards. But the thesis for which the Algerian rob demonstrated—that Algeria is a part of France—has itself bn peen disproved by the demonstration. Algiers was not behaving 'Ike any city of the mother country. Further, it was demanding the execution of Monsieur Soustelle's policy of complete Integration, for which the mother country is quite certainly not Prepared to pay either in blood or money. In this sombre situation the courage of the French Prime Minister is almost the only relieving factor—but courage cannot effect much until supported by a stronger government and applied with greater realism.
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