A Vote for Evolution

Only the most legalistic Frenchman could argue last week that the Algerian rebellion was a strictly domestic problem. Morocco's Mohammed V conferred with Secretary Dulles about it in Washington, the U.N. debated it in New York, and Prime Minister Harold Macmillan went to Paris to reassure Premier Felix Gaillard of British backing (but refused to pledge that Britain under no circumstances would supply more arms to Tunisia).

In Paris Gaillard drove through the long-delayed loi-cadre (framework law) to give Algeria limited home rule. Only two months ago the Assembly had cut a more liberal draft to shreds and so brought down Gaillard's predecessor. Partly because Deputies were unwilling to overturn a brand-new government, partly because the new Premier had prudently pruned away the clauses most objectionable to right-wing nationalists, the bill was approved by a 269-to-200 vote.

Biggest storm blew up not over the loi-cadre itself but over Pierre Mendes-France's plea that France could not afford to wave off Tunisian-Moroccan offers to mediate a settlement with the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN). Mendes was howled down. He managed to finish only after his bitter political enemy Georges Bidault shouted: "If Mendes-France has not the right to speak here, then no one has the right to reply to him."

One Man, One Vote. Gaillard's loi-cadre reaffirms that Algeria, land of 1,000,000 Europeans and 8,700,000 Moslems, is "an integral part of the French Republic." It provides for six territorial assemblies, but requires that each assembly share its powers with appointive "Councils of Communities," whose members will be named by a French governor on the basis of a fifty-fifty split between French and Moslems. A new electoral law abolished the old system, which weighted voting in favor of "non-Moslems" (French), and replaced it with universal suffrage. This was qualified by a system of proportional representation that would assure Frenchmen of some seats even in areas where their vote is very small. After two years, an all-Algerian Assembly with power over all but defense and diplomatic matters would be chosen by the territorial assemblies.

One Rejection, One Concession. Armed with this evidence that France has complied with last February's U.N. recommendation to work for "a peaceful, democratic and just solution" in Algeria, Foreign Minister Christian Pineau moved to the attack against Arab nationalists in the U.N. Political Committee (see box). He cold-shouldered Morocco and Tunisia as impartial mediators. The FLN levies its own taxes and recruits young men in Morocco's Oudjda province, he pointed out. Tunisia has made barracks available to the Algerians in Tunis and Souk-el-Arba, transports their men and equipment in government military vehicles.

But the U.N. delegates were impressed by the evolutionary potentialities of France's new loi-cadre, and said so. Tunisia's President Habib Bourguiba, undaunted by Pineau's quick rejection of his first mediation proposals, announced a compromise: FLN was now willing to start negotiations with France "without requiring from her the previous recognition of Algerian independence.'' Pineau joined the Tunisian and Moroccan delegates for lunch, indicated that France might be willing to talk if the rebels would first accept a ceasefire. Now that the French had taken their first step toward evolution in Algeria, hopeful talk of conciliation spread among the friends of France.

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