France's Victory on Credit
By DARSIE GILLIE IT is to be hoped that the French newspaper reader is feeling a little puzzled by the corn- ' ments of his public men on the outcome of the Algerian debate in the United Nations Assembly. Why should the cries of victory be mingled with murmurs of despair? There is indeed good ground for satisfaction. France has not been con- demned. She was not isolated. The Bandoeng block does have fissures; the South American t, republics do not find its appeal irresistible. But the French position in principle was that the United Nations should not discuss Algeria e because it is an internal French affair. Can it be a triumph for this thesis that the political corn- y mission of the United Nations Assembly and then the Assembly itself should have discussed )1 it for the best part of two weeks? M. Marcel d Champeix, Vice-Minister of the Interior, specially 11 charged with Algerian affairs, has an answer ,C to that one. The United Nations Assembly it'expressed the hope that in a spirit of co-opera- altion a pacific, democratic and just solution will the found by appropriate means and in con- formity with the principles of the Charter of the t:)1 United Nations.' Since the Charter lays it down it that the internal affairs of its members are not If Its concern, this last phrase, according to M. 1Champeix, means that the Assembly agrees that 1( Algeria is not a matter in which it should inter- vene. It seems odd in that case that the words ,should only come at the end of the resolution instead of constituting the whole of it. The same M. Champeix had earlier told the UN Assembly t Algerians enjoyed more civic rights than the , rrench since they sent delegates to an Algerian mbly in Algiers as well as deputies to the ,National Assembly in Paris. It would, therefore, °Probably be a mistake to try to burden his words .,with too much meaning.
M. Pineau, the Foreign Minister, is talking )1 more sense when he equates the word 'pacific' w!ith a cease-fire, 'democratic' with elections, and tf,Just, with negotiations between the French Government and Algeria's elected representatives. ,111 4 e UN, he concludes, has approved the French I len. Already, after the vote in the political com- ission, M. Pineau had spoken of the French plan for Algeria embodied in M. Mollet's declara- I • • on of January 9 as having become a commit- ent between France and her friends. If France d not keep that promise, said M. Pineau, her lends would no longer understand her and 0Uld not again give her their support. Here, for any Frenchmen, is the rub. The plan must carried out and France must take the initiative n Algeria western Europe and Islam meet on broader front than anywhere else in the world. °Where else do so many Europeans and so ny Moslems jostle daily. The French plea that gerian Moslems are not a nation can only, in 1the long run, stress the fact that they arc Moslems, brothers of Moslems elsewhere. This makes it /be more advisable, from a European, and there- li • fore French, point of view, to help them to become a nation, Jess inclined to rely on general Moslem solidarity and more able to take their place as part of the West beside Morocco and Tunisia.
With the debate in the UN over, there is no further excuse for the French Government not to renew its attempts to find a political solution for the Algerian problem, or for the French press to discuss it in the guarded diplomatic manner that has widely prevailed. It is obvious, for instance, for .anyone who reads with attention the despatches of Freneh correspondents in Algiers, that the national protest strike organised by the rebel leaders was much more of a success (though not a triumphant success) than the head- lines and comments of the Paris press suggested. It was also worth noting that while the strike was on there were no terrorist outrages in Algiers at least, though they continued elsewhere. Are not protest strikes preferable to murder even from the point of view of the French Algerois? It is a point that might have been worth con- sidering before penalising taxi-drivers who stayed at home durinethe strike by taking away their licences.
At all events the newspapers have simul- taneously announced both a victory in New York and a new obligation on the French Government to take the initiative in Algeria instead of waiting till the last rebel or terrorist has been captured or shot or has publicly declared the error of his ways. France has secured a new delay to apply her own solution, it is announced, as if the present government had not behind it a whole year used to very small purpose.
M. Mollet cannot be expected to do much before his visit to Washington at the end of the month, but he will presumably be encouraged while there to get to work in Algeria as quickly as possible. It will be a painful nettle to grasp. M. Mollet's plan has been much criticised in the Centre and Right because, although he insists that the problem is to make possible the co-existence of two communities in Algeria, he has promised to do away with their separate representation; he proposes to reduce the crushing weight of the Moslem majority only by decentralisation within Algeria and the maintenance of a right of intervention as umpire by the government in Paris. But this alleged defect in the Mollet plan is in fact only the first step towards recognition of the internal reality of the Algerian problem— an unpleasant and difficult reality for both France and the million Algerian Europeans. This logically follows on recognition of the external reality, the fact that Algeria is not only a French concern.
From an internal French point of view this progress towards reality is essential for the health of the body politic. North African affairs in general, and Algerian affairs in particular, have long been contagious centres of untruth. In Tunisia and Morocco the problems are now being faced. New York has taken France a step forward to facing them in Algeria. The quicker they are faced the more likely it is that they will reveal some pleasant, as well as unpleasant, aspects.
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