Rights & Duties

Wearing French army uniforms, six groups of Algerian rebels last week struck simultaneously at six French farms near Palestro in Algeria. In a few minutes they had slaughtered the occupants of two farms, burned down two other unoccupied farms and killed the cattle, and shot up another family as it escaped by car.

The news reached Paris on the eve of a full-dress debate on the Algerian situation in the Chamber of Deputies, and gave emotional force to the right's demand for stronger action in Algeria. Shouted Poujadist Bullyboy Jean-Marie Le Pen: "The problem in North Africa is military before everything else." But the news also strengthened the government's demand that French Resident Minister Robert Lacoste get special powers to handle the situation. With his opening words to the Assembly, Lacoste drew a crash of applause from everyone except the Communists : "Not a single Frenchman--I say this for the ears of the great powers as well as for our adversaries--will stand by and watch France chased from a land where she implanted herself by the dubious right of arms, but which she conquered by the indubitable right of a civilizing mission of humanity and generosity."

Little by Little. Lacoste's current nightmare is a general Algerian uprising. Said he: "At the beginning of November 1954, the rebellion looked like a very limited movement. But little by little . . . the rebellion spread, and today one-third of northern Algeria is infected by it. Our monthly losses in lives have passed from 30 in November 1954, to 285 in January 1956."

From Gaullist Jacques Soustelle, who was governor of Algeria under Mendes-France, came support for Lacoste. Said Soustelle: "If the Mediterranean becomes a moat instead of a passage, France will cease to be a great power and will see the whole of Africa closed off to her."

Off to Jail. While Deputies passionately talked, word spread among the thousands of Algerians in the slums of Paris: strike on Friday. Paris woke up to find scores of little cafes closed and many local industries, including the Citroen plant, crippled for lack of workers. Police strengthened their cordon around the Chamber of Deputies, while the garde mobile (riot police) set up strongpoints all over Paris. By 1 p.m. thousands of Algerians had gathered at the Moslem mosque near the Gare d'Austerlitz. At 3 p.m. they formed themselves into a straggling parade led by a girl dressed in white. Chanting Algerian hymns and thrusting their right hands (forefinger extended) into the air in the Algerian nationalist salute, they marched along the quais toward the Place de la Concorde.

Just behind the Hotel de Ville a three-deep line of the helmeted garde mobile blocked the passage. As the marchers spread out into a formless crowd, a jauntily kepied high-ranking police officer held the anxious leaders in conversation. Then suddenly the big blue police vans roared down with reinforcements of police. Surrounded by hundreds of wellarmed, disciplined men, one thousand Algerians yielded and were trucked off to jail. Frisked (of knives, stilettos, pieces of steel) and fingerprinted for future reference, most were later released.

In the Chamber of Deputies, Premier Guy Mollet in schoolmasterly fashion announced his government's program for meeting and quelling Algerian unrest: 1) vigorous military effort to restore order; 2) economic reform; 3) free elections as soon as possible to provide Algerian spokesmen with whom France can work out a political future for Algeria. In short, said Mollet, demanding a vote of confidence, "neither abandonment of the rights of France, nor denial of her duties."

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