"Moods of Anger"

U.S.-French relations, queasy from the first week of the invasion of North Africa, queasier since the liberation of France, had been settled not a whit by the full story of the failure of Franklin Roosevelt and Charles de Gaulle to meet at Algiers (TIME, Feb. 26).

Franklin Roosevelt made no bones about where he stood. The official White House statement detailing the President's movements quoted him as saying: "Questions of mutual interest and importance to France and the U.S. are pending. I wanted very much to see the General before leaving for home." This was a diplomatic way of shrugging shoulders and saying: it's your hard luck, Charlie, if you didn't come to see me.

In Paris, where censorship blacked out all domestic news of the episode for a week, newsmen finally got the De Gaulle explanation. It was this: General de Gaulle, still hurt at not having been invited to Yalta, had not had time to study the Yalta communique and its full implications. Furthermore, he felt that Franklin Roosevelt would ask commitments of him which he was not prepared to make on short notice. Hence, he refused the meeting.

The French people, still not fully aware of the long personal duel between F.D.R. and De Gaulle, were puzzled. Their press told the story in bits & pieces. Some papers politely took Franklin Roosevelt to task for summoning Charles de Gaulle from his capital to an out-of-the-way meeting place. But others unloosed cautious criticism of General de Gaulle himself. Was not Le Grand Charlie being a little too proud and stiff-necked? Said L'Aurore: "We must repeat that we remain a great power, but should we not all the more carefully avoid showing bad humor?" Added Le Front National: "Let us beware of moods of anger that betray weakness more than real strength."

At the Quai d'Orsay the knowing gossipers said: "Gen. De Gaulle was in no mood to say yes to anything. It is far better that he said no to the invitation than no when asked for his approval of Yalta."

"In World War I." As if emboldened by this first faint criticism of De Gaulle at home, some of the U.S. press lashed out at the French provisional leader. Said the gum-chewing New York Daily News, which does not like foreigners anyhow: "Gen. de Gaulle should have been glad to come 200 miles on his knees to see the

President of the United States. . . . The debt on account of Lafayette was paid off long ago, in World War I. . . . In the present war, it took the western Allies to liberate France--and about 75% of the troops performing that job were American."

But most of the U.S. press took the middle view: both Franklin Roosevelt and General de Gaulle could well afford to be less haughty toward each other.

The official Washington view was simply that France, which has so far contributed little to the winning of the war and has by no means regained her former strength and prestige, cannot yet hope to be classed as a major world power, but that the U.S. will do all it can to help her reach this state. Significantly, despite the "snub," General de Gaulle last week received a tentative U.S. program for $2 1/2 billion in Lend-Lease to France.

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