Doubtful Card

Fortnight ago, in the course of a debate on Algeria, Premier Felix Gaillard tentatively proposed a Western Mediterranean community of nations. It was more than a suggestion, and less than a plan, but the French government is serious about it.

Gaillard envisages the establishment of a Mediterranean alliance composed of Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, Spain, Italy, Britain and France. It would also include Algeria--as a part of France. Militarily, the proposed pact would be designed to defend North Africa against both Communism and Nasserism. Economically, it would offer its members the right to participate in development of the oil and mineral resources of the Sahara.

Some such scheme, argued Gaillard last week, "is one of the last cards we can play to keep the Arab countries on the Western side."

But, like other plausible-sounding French proposals. Gaillard's pact met many problems but not the crucial one, the status of Algeria. Tunisia and Morocco need help to keep their unbalanced economies viable, and in the past have shown willingness to accept that aid from France. But because of their citizens' sympathy for the Algerian rebels, Tunisia and Morocco have been moving away from, not toward, France. It was hard to see how that trend could be reversed by the offer of a pact which would, in effect, force both governments to ratify permanent French control of Algeria. Speaking for Algerians, Tunisians and Moroccans alike, Morocco's semiofficial Al Ahd Al Jadid last week snapped: "The French proposition is an effort to turn attention away from the Algerian drama and to set a trap with the object of consolidating colonialism in North Africa on a new basis."

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