Can De Gaulle Call a Halt?

Alarmed by the growing wave of nationalization of French-owned property, the government of Charles de Gaulle last week demanded a new round of diplomatic talks with Algeria. France's complaint: Premier Ahmed ben Bella's headlong plunge into socialism is in serious violation of the 1962 Evian ac cords, which granted Algeria independence. At a National Assembly budget hearing, Finance Minister Valery Giscard d'Estaing hinted that French aid to Algeria might be slashed by amounts equal to "compensation that would be due French citizens for nationalizations or spoliations."

Strongman Ben Bella gave his answer at an Algiers "press conference" with 250 visiting Communist journalists: "The agreements of Evian are not the Koran for us. It will be necessary to revise and readjust them in regard to our socialist objectives." Furthermore, he warned, if France sets off any new nuclear explosions in its Algerian Sahara testing grounds, there will be "an acceleration of our socialism."*

* Algeria, however, voiced no objection to De Gaulle's upcoming Sahara missile shot, which will send a telemetered cat aloft next month, as a follow-up to the three rats sent soaring in earlier French rockets.

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