Life with Papa

In the tense days a year ago, after the May 13 Algerian riots that started Charles de Gaulle on his way to power, one French Deputy pleaded: "Let us vote for him lest we lose the right to vote altogether." Last week, as the new Assembly of the Fifth Republic opened its first regular session, flabbergasted Deputies got a demonstration of just how much they had lost after all.

In the new Assembly, the Algerian and Saharan representation is so large (67 members) that the mushy North African dish couscous has become a standard plat du jour in the Assembly restaurant. Deputies were eager to debate the progress of the costly, unsettled Algerian war. Imperiously, Premier Michel Debre declared that there would be no debate on foreign policy, at least before the Big Four foreign ministers' meeting next week, or on Algeria, and under De Gaulle's Fifth Republic constitution, which Lawyer Debre devised. Premier Debre had his way. Complained ex-Premier Robert Schuman: "I wonder if we Deputies have not become redundant."

Murders & Mistakes. Despite French military successes in Algeria, emotions 'are running high there. Europeans in Algeria have been aroused by the rape and murder of two French women and the killing of a little girl by Algerian rebels. These crimes coincided with news that President de Gaulle had commuted the death sentences of 30 F.L.N. terrorists. "Mistakes are being accumulated, murderers are being pardoned, terrorist outrages continue," said the right-wing Echo d'Alger bitterly. "On May 13 we shall abstain in silence and in mourning unless some new factor occurs."

Last week Echo d'Alger got its "new factor." In Paris, De Gaulle summoned Algerian Deputy Pierre Laffont, the liberal publisher of Echo d'Oran, to a meeting, then authorized Laffont to publish its substance afterwards. De Gaulle managed to excoriate :his French critics in Algeria--and satisfy them at the same time. The F.L.N., De Gaulle assured Laffont, "does not represent Algeria or even the Moslems of Algeria. I have informed all bona fide states that France would immediately withdraw its ambassador from any country that recognized this political organization." De Gaulle had no intentions of negotiating independence with the rebels, only a ceasefire.

But then why had De Gaulle always refused to use the word "integration," meaning that Algeria is as integral a part of France as Normandy? Said De Gaulle: "What have I done since I have been in power? In 1943 I gave the Moslems the right to vote. Isn't this already integration? Those who shout loudest for integration are the selfsame people who opposed this step then. What they want is for somebody to give them back Papa's Algeria. But Papa's Algeria is dead, and if they don't understand that, they will die with it. As for the word's political significance, what does it mean? That Algeria is French? Is there any point in saying so, since it is a fact?"

"I Alone . . ." In thus adopting the language of the French settlers in Algeria (if not necessarily their attitude), De Gaulle overnight eased the settlers' tension. In Algiers next day, the municipal council chose as mayor not the extremist who seemed assured of the post, but a moderate who became the first Moslem ever to be elected head of the city.

And for the settlers in Algeria there was further good news in the capture of Mustapha Stambouli, one of the rebel F.L.N.'s "secretaries of state," who promptly rallied to the De Gaulle call for "a peace of the brave." Charles de Gaulle had one final message for the jumpy French settlers, who aspire to bend Metropolitan France to their demands: "I alone can bring a solution to Algeria.''

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