Down the Mine
Front DARSIE GILLIE volt+
TAlgerian war has not lately been crY much in the public mind—or perhaps ouc, should say in the shop windows shown to the pub' tic mind. Apart from visits of state, there has been a sensational kidnapping, and there has been Caryl Chessman. There has been, for motorists the opening of the first section of the Autoroute du Sud, winding in lovely majesty through the virgin land that lay hidden away quite near to Paris between the old built-up main roads. But the Algerian trouble is all the time ill the background, thrusting up its head when least expected and least desired. As soon as the will!' issues satisfied reports about the progress made in reducing rebel power within Algeria, the old question of the Tunisian frontier turns up. It IS greatly to the credit of President de Gaulle that he has uncompromisingly called the army t° order on this issue from the very beginning of his return to power. He has insisted that the legal offence constituted by the existence of rebel bases in Tunisian territory must not lead on the French side to invasions of Tunisia. To spread the war to Tunisia would do France an infinity of WO President Bourguiba on his side has insisted that the sympathy felt for the rebels in Tunisia must not lead to a breakdovi n of relations with France or swing Tunisia into the orbit of Cairo: mueh .less of Moscow.
The speeches made by the President during his round of the officers messes in Algeria were a warning that his spectacular speech of January 29 did not end the problern of relations betv■ee° government and army. On the contrary, cverY thing that has happened since suggests that the President is proceeding V, ith great caution. He has certainly transferred elsewhere the higher officers who were in command in Algeria last JanuarY. and his inauguration of the new official aim. a° 'Algerian Algeria in close association with France,' is a firm rejection of some brands Of dangerous nonsense. But there has been no cation of a really sharp wheel-about in the hand- ling of the army. The .psychological warfare department has been dissolved, but redistributed rather, than abolished. The 'Home Guards' still exist if in less dangerous form. Finally. the Government by decreeing that all cases arising out of events in Algeria since October, 1956, ma) be tried by military courts has permitted the transfer to them of the prosecutions arising out of the January insurrection. Nothing is as known about charges to be brought against officers in this connection and the army's legal department can be relied on to allow very little to be known. French military courts have given some judgments which prove remarkable inde- pendence, but also some very strange ones. The military legal system which allowed the leader of the Right-wing conspiracy to murder the C-in-C, General Salan, to escape, and gave light sentences to his confederates, can be relied upon to keeP the 'face' and the unity of the army high among its preoccupations. The decree permitting this transfer was slipped out during a recent weekend without any ex- planation and in spite of a severe comment bY the Government's permanent legal adviser, the Council of State. The same procedure was adopted for a decree transferring from parlia- ment to government the right to proclaim for twelve days a 'state of urgency' under which all guarantees of constitutional liberties are sus- pended. Since these guarantees are already sus- pended in Algeria, the right must have been assumed in case of need in France.
Finally, so long as the one hope of bringing the Algerian war to an end lies with Psident de Gaulle, it is impossible for anyone on the Left seriously to wish to strengthen the Government, which is answerable to parliament, against the President, who is not.
M. Maurice Schuman has recently observed that if the President outlives the Algerian war there is a hope of the constitution taking root. If the war outlasts the President, there is renewed fear of political chaos. M. Schuman spoke wisely. The President is back, face to face with his old problem again.
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