FRANCE: Trouble Under the Sun

The temperature rose to 122° in Tunisia one day last week. The political temperature in French North Africa went even higher:

¶ In Algeria, a Foreign Legion column of six trucks, a jeep and an ambulance was ambushed by rebels high in the Aures Mountains. When the rebels finally withdrew, leaving 15 dead behind them, 24 Legionnaires lay dead and 14 wounded—the heaviest losses the French have suffered since the Algerian troubles began last fall.

¶ In Morocco, new French Resident General Gilbert Grandval made his ceremonial visit to Meknes, which has hitherto been the most tranquil of Morocco's major cities. But French police fired point-blank into a crowd of 500 young Moroccans who were demonstrating in favor of exiled Sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Youssef. The uproar touched off riots that ended with 30 dead, an estimated 250 wounded. Among the injured: pretty, 20-year-old Malika Meliani, actress and radio announcer, who had clutched in her hand a bouquet of flowers and a letter for Resident General Grandval reading: "The young girls of Meknes have the pleasure of welcoming you respectfully."

On orders from Paris, Grandval canceled a ceremonial first visit to Fez, center of nationalist activity, to avoid further casualties. But over the weekend, riots flared again across Morocco, killing 14. "Our hope in Grandval is enormous," said a nationalist leader. "But if it isn't satisfied, our disappointment will be even greater."

¶ In Paris, Premier Edgar Faure faced angry rightists in the French National Assembly. "Never has a failure been more striking than that of Monsieur Grandval," roared General Adolphe Aumeran, a rightist Deputy who represents Algerian colonials. "Wherever he goes, the death list increases." Dapper Georges Bidault, who as Foreign Minister in 1953 approved the exile of Ben Youssef and his replacement by a French-controlled Sultan named Sidi Mohammed ben Moulay Arafa, cried: "If anyone touches a hair of Moulay Arafa's beard, I overthrow the government." The best Premier Faure could do in such a situation was to postpone debate on Morocco with a promise not to restore exiled Ben Youssef to the throne while Parliament was in recess, and to keep Puppet Arafa a while longer on the throne.

¶ From Madagascar, Ben Youssef wrote to a friend in Paris: "Unhappily, everything we predicted is coming true . . . We pray evening and morning." The unemployed ex-Sultan, now a French ward, lives in a run-down resort hotel with two wives, six children and assorted concubines.