The Victor--for the Moment

The last time Ahmed ben Bella saw Algiers' airport, he was handcuffed and accompanied by French guards who were transporting him to France and 5 1/2 years in prison. Last week Ben Bella (45) returned to Algiers in triumph, ruler now of Algeria after an audacious, month-long struggle for power that led his crisis-weary country close to civil war.

So thick were the crowds that surged to greet Ben Bella's plane when it touched down at Maison Blanche Airport that an Algerian army officer in a paratroop uniform fired a tommy gun in the air to clear a path for him. With sirens screaming, 30 motorcycle cops led the motorcade on a wild ride into downtown Algiers. Switching lanes with abandon and totally disregarding one-way street signs, the cars alternately sped along at 60 m.p.h. or were caught in bumper-to-bumper jams as the screaming populace boiled forward to see its new leader. Finally the caravan reached the prefecture of the Provisional Government, overlooking Algiers' waterfront; carried inside on the shoulders of his joyous followers, Ben Bella met and shook hands with Algeria's vanquished and all-but-forgotten Premier, Benyoussef Benkheddathus -ending, at least for the moment, the new country's first major crisis.

Disgruntled Military. Ben Bella won by the simple tactic of outwaiting his enemies until they realized that public opinion was on his side. Holed up in the rugged Kabylia region, where they had promised to fight to "the last drop of blood." his two chief opponents, shrewd, sick (he has only one lung) Mohammed Boudiaf and clever, tough Belkacem Krim, finally saw the futility of their fight, agreed to negotiations with Ben Bella's top aide. Mohammed Khider. Boudiaf and Krim capitulated without even a face-saving compromise. They accepted intact Ben Bella's seven-man politburo, which included Boudiaf but excluded Krim. Premier Benkhedda passed all policymaking power over to the politburo, will remain on as figurehead chief of government until elections to the new Constituent Assembly on Aug. 27. He won only a promise "in principle" from Ben Bella that the Constituent Assembly would be allowed to "reexamine" the membership of the politburo after the elections.

The victory engineered by Ben Bella presumably assures Algeria a measure of political stability, though it fails to resolve the new nation's basic problem -what to do with the army and its disgruntled general staff.

Algeria's six wilayas (zones) are in effect independent military fiefs with no real allegiance to any central government in Algiers. So powerful are the wilayas that any candidates Ben Bella nominates for the scheduled elections' Constituent Assembly must have their approval. Theoretically the 60,000-man army (the A.L.N.) is a single national force, but actually it is composed of half a dozen more or less autonomous units with no disposition to centralize authority.

The most powerful force in the A.L.N. is former Army Chief of Staff Colonel Houari Boumedienne, 37, a gaunt, chainsmoking ascetic who wears no insignia on his ill-fitting khaki uniform. One of the best-educated men in the F.L.N., Boumedienne attended the two finest Moslem universities, al-Azhar in Cairo and Zi-touna in Tunis, is the editor of a military review. El Djiech (The Army). At present, Boumedienne backs Ben Bella, but he wants to make the army the backbone of the Algerian nation. Boumedienne opposes close economic ties with France as a form of-"neo-colonialism," is against the presence of Europeans in an independent Algeria. Some anti-Ben Bella wilaya commanders, however, disagree with Boumedienne on these matters, vow that they will refuse to obey his orders.

Withering on the Vine. This year, half of Algeria's 1,000,000 Europeans have fled; the French government tried to minimize this exodus as a "seasonal departure," to which the satiric weekly Le Canard Enchaine replied: "A seasonal departure which takes place once every 132 years." The wine harvest, which provides 50% of Algeria's exports, is withering on the vine as farmers leave for France, and one of the best wheat crops in history will barely top last year's drought harvest.

What is hurting Algeria most, however, is not the leaving of businessmen, farmers or even engineers, but the departure of the skilled technicians, the foremen and secretaries. In Oran it is almost impossible to find a mechanic, a locksmith or a crane operator. Entire districts are without telephone service because there are no European repairmen or linemen left. The teacher shortage is so desperate that there is doubt that the schools will be able to open in the fall, and the equally severe scarcity of doctors has raised the fear of epidemics. "You ask what is working in Algeria," said a young Provisional Government official. "Monsieur, I can tell you that if anything works it is a miracle."

No Analogies. Ben Bella has apparently decided to deal with the problem of the troublesome army later, hoping that his hold on the public imagination will balance its strength. As his first order of business, he is desperately trying not only to prevail on the remaining Europeans to stay in Algeria, but also to entice departed pieds-noirs back. In his calmest speech yet, he said last week:

"I have been compared to Fidel Castro, to Nasser and many others. One should be careful in drawing such analogies. We mean to undertake a specific experiment in Algeria. There is the socialism of Mao Tse-tung and the socialism of [moderate former French Premier] Guy Mollet. For us. socialism means the liquidation of privileges." But, said Ben Bella, there would still be a "place for a free, capitalist economy. We do not intend to nationalize." And in his most important promise. Ben Bella vowed to maintain Algeria's ties to France, as specified in the Evian agreements. "The French government must help us,'' he said. "I believe it is disposed to do so."

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