FRENCH NATIVE POLICY IN ALGERIA
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In thanking your " Correspondent in Algiers " for his generous mention of my book, France in Tunis and Algeria, may I refer to a remark which implies the only serious com- plaint of its contents as yet advanced in print Y It runs : " . . it is perhaps a little unfortunate that the author should not have told his readers that M. Viollette, the late Governor-General, left Algeria in consequence of serious disagreement between him and the Financial Delegations, precisely on the subject of his great and costly schemes of social service among the native population." As M. Viollette retired (November 12th, 1927) some eight months after the time of my visit, I had to check the accounts of his resignation given in the Press by the testimony of a competent observer on the spot. The information thus obtained was to the following effect.
1. My supposition (based on Press accounts from Paris, not. Algiers) that disapproval of M. Viollette's efforts for the welfare of the Natives had brought about the change of Governor-General, was incorrect.
2. No serious critic had condemned, or even characterized as "idealistic " (my word), the policy in question.
3. His successor, M. Pierre Bottles, was then (March, 1928) carrying out a similar policy, and his sympathy for the Natives and their aspirations was, if anything, even greater than that dis- played by M. Viollette. 4. M. Viollette's resignation was believed to be due largely to his desire to return to France, and his constituency, in view of the (then) forthcoming general election of 1928.
This (4) was, accordingly, what I told my readers in the Note at pp. 246-7, to which your correspondent so courteously takes exception—I am, Sir, &c., W. BASIL WORSPOLD.
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