The Way of a Demagogue
HARRY FRANKLIN'S report from Elizabethville gives a fair indication of the difficulty con- fronting the UN in dealing with Katanga. It is obvious that Belgian troops must be cleared out of the whole of the Congo: to have allowed Katanga to remain 'occupied,' even if that could be shown to meet with the Katangans' wishes, would sooner or later have made a return to violence inevitable. On the other hand, it is not enough for the UN to assert that it is not inter- fering in the internal affairs of the Congo if, by its intervention, it creates the kind of power vacuum that a demagogue can exploit. Nothing that Mr. Lumumba has said on his travels alters the impression that the unfavourable opinion Mr. Franklin formed of him is justified; his pro- nouncements have been confusing and hysterical —suggesting that he is another Castro without Castro's more endearing traits. The existence of a UN force, necessary though it may be to pre- vent further bloodshed, may be just what Mr. Lumumba requires to establish his authority over areas of the Congo where otherwise his writ could not hope to run—hardly a happy outlook for their residents.
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