The Quarreling Chiefs

Since it gained independence on July i, Algeria has been drifting out of control. Last week there were, in effect, two capitals: Algiers, precariously ruled by Premier Benyoussef Benkhedda, and Tlemcen, near Oran, held by Vice Premier ben Bella, whom his enthusiastic followers compare to the Congo's late rabble-rousing hero, Patrice Lumumba. In a desperate attempt to heal the split between the two factions, the military commanders of the six wilayas (zones) of Algeria met last week at the inland city of Orleansville, interrupting their talks only to take soundings in Algiers and Tlemcen. They finally proposed a six-man politburo, with three members from each, side, which would be empowered to prepare a slate of candidates for a Congress to be elected by the Algerian people.

Meanwhile, the bitter rivals were facing new complications. From Algiers, word came that Benkhedda was finished, and that his future role--no matter what his title--could only be a subordinate one. But the anti-Ben Bella cause is still being upheld by hard-bitten Belkacem Krim, who effectively controls the mountainous region of Kabylia, and by subtle, self-educated Mohammed Boudiaf, 40, who spent most of the war in a French prison with Mohammed ben Bella and grew to mistrust him.

In his "capital" at Tlemcen, Ben Bella also seemed to be losing ground to Colonel Houari Boumedienne, whose dismissal as F.L.N. army chief of staff last month precipitated the row with Benkhedda. It was Boumedienne, a pale, brown-haired former schoolteacher and pronounced left-winger, who last week angrily turned down the Orleansville proposal while Ben Bella was still studying it. Belkacem Krim and Mohammed Boudiaf had been named for the politburo, but Boumedienne denounced them both as "usurpers" and accused them of having "collaborated" with France in the days before Algerian independence.

While the F.L.N. leaders wrangled like children, there was evidence of a growing impatience among the long-suffering 10 million Algerians. The historical-minded remembered that their country had always fallen prey to conquerors because of the inability of its chiefs to unite against a common foe. The F.L.N. newspaper, El Moudjahid, had a warning to all the wranglers: "If an agreement is not reached very quickly, it will inevitably become necessary to consider the replacement of the leadership."

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