Harassed on All Sides

The terror" of the fallaghas swept Algeria from end to end last week. The attacks were forceful, organized and purposeful.

In western Algeria, near the Moroccan border, the rebels launched coordinated attacks on the rich, winegrowing plains between the mountains and the coasts. In one night, rebel bands attacked 46 big French farms, burned buildings to the ground, slaughtered 17 Europeans and 23 Moslems. In the east, rebels attacked 40 villages along the mountainous coast, hurling hand grenades and gasoline bombs. At week's end, rebel suicide squads broke into Constantine (pop. 118,000) at noon, fought a running gun battle with French troops through the streets, and bombed a Jewish cafe in the city's center.

The French doggedly reported 79 rebels killed one day, 109 the next, but the attacks went on. A ragtag rebel "army" of not more than 20,000 men was tying down a French force that will reach 330,000 men by month's end. Minister Resident Robert Lacoste declared a state of siege for two eastern Algerian departments, and in western Oran ordered all able-bodied men from 18 to 48 to report for militia duty.

Any attempt by Lacoste to match force with reforms to benefit the Arabs angered Algeria's 1,000.000 Frenchmen. Students at the University of Algiers struck against Lacoste's announced plan to give two-thirds of all administrative posts to qualified Moslems. At ceremonies celebrating the eleventh anniversary of V-E Day, hostile Algerian French crowds booed, hurled tomatoes and stones as Lacoste laid a wreath on the war memorial. "Lacoste, resign! Put the army in power!" they chanted. Lacoste hustled past the police cordon, stopped before one shouting Frenchman and demanded: "Have you ever fought a war?" The man said no. Snapped Lacoste: "Well, I fought in two. If you want to give lessons in patriotism, get up into the mountains." Lacoste turned to the others: "You're all nothing but a bunch of sidewalk jingoists."

Harassed on all sides, Lacoste struck out at all sides. He even potshotted the U.S. The rebels, he said, recognizing "they cannot possibly win by military action," are now falling back on the hope that "international opinion or action by foreign countries" will impose a solution on France. He denied a visa to the A.F.L.C.I.O. cloak-and-daggering European representative. Irving Brown. Said Lacoste: "Under pretext of trade unionism. Brown conducts adventurous activity with doubtful personages, showing the greatest contempt for the interests and position of France in Algeria." To keep a balance of sorts, he simultaneously ordered the expulsion of two of the more fanatic French colon leaders. (The two promptly announced: "It is the greatest honor a government we deeply despise can render us.") Then Lacoste flew off to Paris to demand yet another 50,000 troops.

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