The Bridge

"Unless there are seven chances in ten for something positive," said Tunisia's President Habib Bourguiba in 1959, "I don't much like going to Paris." But last week the odds in favor of ending the Algerian war finally seemed to have shifted in Bourguiba's eyes: receiving a cordial invitation from President Charles de Gaulle to come to Paris "at his own convenience," he promptly accepted.

Enraged King. Few men have a higher stake in Algerian peace than Bourguiba. His tiny (pop. 4,000,000) impoverished nation plays reluctant host to 150,000 Algerian refugees and also serves as the training ground and rest camp for 18,000 F.L.N. rebels--nearly the size of his own army. To some degree, Bourguiba is a captive in his own country. He must remain scrupulously polite to his guests, yet keep diplomatic channels open with France; he must reconcile his personal pro-Western feelings with his role as a fighter for Moslem unity and North African independence. He has enemies on either side: Egypt's Nasser sneers that Bourguiba is a Western stooge; Morocco's King Mohammed V was enraged last fall when Bourguiba recognized the independence of Mauritania, which the King insists is Moroccan territory.

French-educated Bourguiba has repeatedy warned the West that it must move swiftly to prevent Communist penetration. The long Algerian war severely strained his instinctive loyalty to the West. Last October there was an edge to Bourguiba's voice as he announced: "We will accept all action, all aid, all intervention. Whether it is under Russian or Chinese pressure, through U.S. intervention, or finally by direct negotiations, any means is good to put an end to the war in Algeria." Peace in Algeria could put an end to the F.L.N.'s flirtation with the Communists, who are eagerly pouring money and munitions into the Algerian war. It could also be a step toward Bourguiba's long-cherished but unlikely dream of a federation of the North African nations--Tunisia, Libya, Algeria, Morocco--that would be a counterweight to Nasser's U.A.R.

Admiring Diplomats. Bourguiba survives through skill in bargaining and agility in seizing small advantages--a technique that admiring French diplomats have dubbed "Bourguibisme." He has already advised the F.L.N. leaders against demanding too much of France or striking vainglorious attitudes. By ignoring De Gaulle's grandiloquent words and accepting his concept of an Algerian Algeria, Bourguiba believes the F.L.N. can take over the political substructure of the state and become its ultimate ruler.

In Paris, Bourguiba will presumably caution De Gaulle to give some sort of recognition to the F.L.N. as a disciplined and worthy opponent--perhaps through a private meeting with the F.L.N.'s Ferhat Abbas, where assurances can be exchanged. What the moment calls for is someone skillful enough to smooth the initial approach between France and the F.L.N. rebels it has fought for six long years. Dapper, quick-witted Habib Bourguiba may be just the man.

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