The Second May 13

Only a year ago, almost every available inch of wall space in Algiers sang the praise of Charles de Gaulle, but last week, on the first anniversary of his being called to power, the city was in a different mood. Though 50,000 people gathered in the forum to hear speeches, they were mostly Moslems, whom the French soldiers can mobilize for shows with quiet efficiency. "Shout ' Algerie Franfaise!'" cried an officer from a psychological-warfare unit, but he got only feeble response. Behind him a captain rattled off a steady stream of orders to his men scattered through the audience. "Phantom Two to Phantom: when the speaker shouts 'Algerie,' you shout 'Franfaise!' Shout! Shout! Don't just stand there like sticks of asparagus."

In Constantine, 200 miles to the east, still seething over the killing by F.L.N. terrorists of three French youths and the kidnaping of a young girl (TIME, May 18), French settlers boycotted the local celebration almost to a man, gave vent to their anger at De Gaulle by jeering a column of weary soldiers returning from a long search in the hills for the kidnapers. And in Algiers, a mob of 500 students shouting "De Gaulle to the gallows!" ran afoul of truncheon-swinging police. "Unprovoked police brutality," snapped bearded Pierre Lagaillarde, who led the storming of the Government General Building a year ago. "There were no seditious remarks." But what about the cry of "De Gaulle to the gallows?" a reporter asked. "Its meaning may be seditious," replied Lagaillarde. "But there are good reasons for putting it into words."

Shut Up or Get Out. For such extremists, the "good reasons" are that one year of De Gaulle has meant the election across Algeria of 15,000 Moslem municipal councilors, the promise of massive economic aid, and a regal contempt for those settlers who want an outdated "Papa's Algeria," i.e., an Algeria run comfortably by its white-settler minority. This was hardly what the settlers demonstrated for.

Of their hero generals of the first May 13, only Paratrooper Jacques Massu was still on hand, and he last week pointedly renewed his allegiance to De Gaulle. General Raoul Salan now has the innocuous post of commandant of Paris, and 1,500 other officers have been transferred out of Algeria. De Gaulle's Governor General, Paul Delouvrier, constantly reminds the Ultras that "policy is made in Paris, even for Algiers," last week bluntly told "those who would divide us" to "shut up or get out." The Ultras are still strong enough to spoil a birthday, but not to wreck a government.

Brothers or Comrades. Some of the settlers now recognize that the Frenchman's only hope in Algeria is to share it with the Algerians as equals. But the most significant change to have come about during the year is in the army. Purged of its extremists, it is now a thoroughly efficient fighting force that steers carefully clear of politics. It seems to regard the obstinate pieds noirs (black feet--Europeans born in Algeria) as almost as great an obstacle to an Algerian solution as the rebels themselves. Last week, after a series of clashes between his soldiers and the local Ultras, the commanding officer in Constantine plastered the town with posters: YOU WILL CALL THE MOSLEMS

BROTHERS, OR OTHERS WILL CALL THEM COMRADES.

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