Another Fall in France
TAS, SAL
By Sal Tas Another Fall in France Bourges-Maunoury cabinet out as Assembly rejects Algerian compromise Paris After a bitter wrangle, the French Government's basic law for Algeria was defeated,...
...One can imagine how they will exploit the defeat of the basic law...
...Three months of hesitation, compromising and bickering had completely destroyed his good will...
...But they forgot one Tunisian precedent...
...But the wide fear of the inflationary spiral will probably enable a new government to check these disturbances...
...giving [hem the rights and standards of French citizens...
...The agitation by Morice within the Cabinet stimulated the right-wingers in the National Assembly...
...The fights on these issues began within the Government itself...
...One may say in some ways that Soustelle has been the Governor Faubus of this crisis...
...Those who followed the bitter and unruly debate in the Assembly have little doubt now about its ultimate upshot: The man who rejected Algerian autonomy out of fear of their constituents will one day have to vote Algerian independence out of fear the consequences of the prolongation of the war...
...Now they were joined by most of the conservatives, as well as by Mendes-France and other Radicals who felt the law did not go far enough...
...The Algerian National Front (FLN) was losing ground and was more amenable to settlement...
...Now the colons feel their power, while the rebels see no alternative to all-out struggle...
...In that position two years ago, Soustelle had attempted to integrate Algerian Moslems by social reform...
...Bourges-Maunoury, who made a good speech, made no impression whatsoever...
...some of the colons were having second thoughts...
...By asking Tunisia and Morocco to present their case to the UN General Assembly, the rebels show good sense...
...If so, he lacks political sense, for this is no revolutionary crisis...
...Andre Morice, Defense Minister, led the assault by the Right on the draft law...
...He will be forgotten as soon as his successor as Premier is nominated...
...The right-wing, in its opposition to concessions, has repeatedly referred to the Tunisian and Moroccan precedents, in which concessions led to autonomy and then independence...
...In any event, after Soustelle had made his move, most of the other right-wingers followed him...
...Some say Soustelle provoked the current mess because he hopes it will bring General de Gaulle to power...
...Some five years ago, after a long debate on the Tunisian problem, the Assembly rejected all the proposals put before it: the Government proposal, the Opposition proposal, and a compromise...
...Though the law was far from perfect, it offered the Algerians the beginnings of internal autonomy and an embryo of self-government within the French Republic...
...When the world was confronted with that political vacuum, it felt instinctively that a historic step had been taken, and that Tunisian independence had become inescapable...
...First to attack the law was the Gaullist intellectual Jacques Soustelle, who had preceded Socialist Robert Lacoste as Resident Minister in Algeria...
...This becomes all the more significant as the FLN is showing the ability to utilize political as well as military means...
...To be sure, prices are rising, farmers and grocers are organizing demonstrations, and some workers are threatening a new strike wave...
...Morice had left the Radical party because of the more liberal line toward Algeria pursued by its leader, ex-Premier Pierre Mendes-France...
...Criticized then by I lie colonial group, lie suddenly became their hero when it became known that a Socialist would succeed him...
...and the formation of an executive power through an all-Algerian council and its chairman...
...The demonstration which the Algerian French organized for him when he departed moved him deeply, and he became a staunch defender of their interests afterward...
...Morice, who rose to defend the law, was laughed at...
...By Sal Tas Another Fall in France Bourges-Maunoury cabinet out as Assembly rejects Algerian compromise Paris After a bitter wrangle, the French Government's basic law for Algeria was defeated, and the cabinet of Maurice Bourges-Maunoury went down with it...
...Though all its leaders, including Morice, then agreed on a compromise, the very next day, when the Assembly debate began, one right-wing leader after another deserted the Government...
...The uncommitted Algerian Moslems, facing a choice between the FLN with its unsavory methods and colonial rule, will surely choose the FLN...
...Watered down after endless and repetitive discussion, the law finally represented a compromise on two key issues: the question of a single electoral constituency of Europeans and Moslems, instead of separate voting by race...
...The Pou-jadists and Communists had already had a field-day in committee...
...For those who hoped France and Algerian nationalists could reach a compromise, the negative vote was a real tragedy, in that it must stimulate the extremists on both sides...
...This is particularly true of the Moslem youth...
Vol. 40 • October 1957 • No. 41
