Giraud and de Gaulle
Such information as is available about the earlier meetings between General Giraud and his nominees and General de Gaulle and his gives little ground for optimism. Personal questions appear to have bulked large, and the general impression created is that General Giraud has shown himself reasonable, General de Gaulle unreasonable, and General Catroux a tireless and invaluable concilia- tor. All the pre-conference concessions came from General Giraud, and now General de Gaulle, not content with insisting on various proscriptions—resulting as a beginning in the resignation of M. Peyrouton from the Governorship of Algeria—is reported to have
objected to General Giraud's nomination, as members of the Pro- visional Committee, of General Georges, the most distinguished French soldier with the possible exception of General Giraud him- self, and M. Jean Monnet, one of the ablest civilian administrators. An agreement which ought, in the interests of France and of the United Nations, to be swift and cordial, promises to be slow and difficult. It is hard to believe that everything could not be settled satisfactorily in a day between General Catroux and M..Massigli on the one side and General Giraud and M. Monnet on the other, but all the experience of the last twelve months and more has displayed General de Gaulle, in spite of the indispensable service he rendered by constituting himself the leader of French resistance in two, as a stiff and intractable negotiator. General Giraud has created no such impression. There is, of course, time for the Algiers Conference to take a better turn ; most of its members are reasonable men ; but it is a pity it could not have made a better beginning.
