A Distinction

From the Cahiers du Communisme, official monthly review of the best that has been thought and said by French Communists: "Communists affirm the right of self-determination for every nation or colonial people. But this does not mean that they are everywhere and always in favor of separation. The question of recognition of the right to separate should not be confused with the usefulness of separation . . . just as the right to divorce does not signify the obligation to divorce."

Behind this supple distinction was the embarrassment of French Communists, currently engaged in the tough task of remaining theoretically consistent, while keeping intact the centrifugal French colonial empire against the day when France may become a Communist state.

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