Time for Reflection

Charles de Gaulle picked up a phone and called his chief delegate at Evian-les-Bains, white-haired Louis Joxe. Break off the talks, he ordered--at least for the moment. De Gaulle was frankly fed up. Day after day, week after week, Algeria's rebel F.L.N. delegation had rejected every French proposal. There would be no special guarantees for the rights of Algeria's 1,000,000 Europeans after independence, the rebels insisted. Nor would the French be allowed to hang on to the vast Sahara region and its oil; the Sahara must become an integral part of the new Algerian nation. As for France's unilateral ceasefire in the Algerian war announced last month, the F.L.N. replied by stepping up their own killing: in the 19 days following the opening of the Evian conference, 133 people have been killed and 300 wounded by the terrorists in Algeria alone.

Relaying the boss's orders to the startled F.L.N. contingent across the table in Evian's Hotel du Pare, Joxe was polite but firm. "I have given our position," he said. "I have nothing to add. I suggest, in the present state of our talks, a suspension of our meetings and an interval for reflection."

The F.L.N.'s chief negotiator, stocky ex-Guerrilla Belkacem Krim, was clearly taken aback. "We do not agree at all. Not at all. This is a unilateral move," he spluttered. Krim proposed that "working sessions" continue the following day. But De Gaulle was adamant; he plainly wanted to let the Algerians stew for awhile. Perhaps, suggested Joxe, everyone might get together again in ten to 15 days, but the tone of his farewell words as he flew off to Paris was clear enough: don't call us, we'll call you.

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