Commentary on Freedom

More eloquent than any indictment of Vichy influence in North Africa was a list of prisoners released by the Giraud Government last week. They were arrested last December after Admiral Jean Francois Darlan was assassinated. The list included :

> Jacques Brunei, former mayor of Algiers, in whose home Lieut. General Mark W. Clark met French patriots before the invasion.

> Henri, Jose and Raphael Albouquer. One of these three brothers captured a post office and telephone exchange for the Americans. Another served as guide for a successful American mission. The third acted as interpreter for U.S. officers.

> Ex-Police Commissioner Esquerre, who gave the Allies lists of Frenchmen who had been collaborating with the Axis Armistice Commissions.

> Two men, Alexandre and Moati, who gave U.S. and British troops the signal to land on an Algerian beach. Alexandre, before he escaped from France to Algiers, assisted in General Giraud's own escape from Vichyfrance to join the Allies.

The Giraud Government said that 903 political prisoners, including 420 Poles, had been freed since Nov. 8. Still held: some 5,500 political prisoners, among them many Spanish Republicans.

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