FRENCH AFRICA: Two More

Elsewhere in Africa the drive toward freedom moved on. Last week, 18 months after France granted them autonomy, two French Community members extracted from France formal agreements granting them full independence. They are: the Malagasy Republic, which occupies the 228,000-sq.-mi. island of Madagascar, off Africa's southeast coast, and the Federation of Mali, a union of the former French West African colonies of Senegal and Sudan.

Both fledgling nations want to remain in the French Community, but the French Constitution at present provides that any member desiring independence must leave the Community. De Gaulle is expected to ask for an amendment that will transform the Community into the shape of a loose alliance of free countries along the lines of the British Commonwealth. Likely target date for completion of the constitutional rejiggering and the formal proclamations of independence: next June.