France: Days of Decision

Those who vote no, cried Charles de Gaulle, "refuse to have the problem of Algeria ever resolved by France. To abstain is to choose impotence for France." But to vote yes "is to want France to win in Algeria, for Algeria, with Algeria, in the cause of peace and reason." His earnest personal appeal last week went out over nationwide radio and TV: "Men of France, it is to me you are going to give your answer. I need—yes, I need—to know what is in your hearts and minds. In truth—who is not aware of it?—the matter is between each woman and man of France and myself." Some had already answered. European activists in Algiers scrawled two-foot slogans on walls: "Say no to the monster!" "No to Judas Iscariot!" Gutters were choked with ripped-up posters supporting De Gaulle. In the surrounding towns, armed Europeans threatened to shoot Gaullist bill posters if they did not take to their heels.

Mixed Views. In France itself, the Communists, the right-wing followers of Jacques Soustelle and the army leadership found themselves on the same side: all said they would vote no. Voting yes were the socialists and the conservatives, the faithful Gaullist U.N.R. and Roman Catholic intellectuals. The government poured $2,000,000 into the campaign, but when Premier Michel Debre spoke at a public meeting, he was mobbed by angry supporters of both yes and no. Thereafter, he spoke to audiences composed mostly of policemen.

In Algeria, the voting was by zones and was spread over three days to guarantee maximum control. The rebel F.L.N. ordered Moslems to abstain, emphasized their point by shooting dead the Moslem director of a polling place. In a few villages, like Djemaa Saharij, Moslems refused to budge from their homes. At Gueltet, F.L.N. raiders shot up a crowd of Moslems waiting to vote and were driven off by French troops. The cost: eleven dead. In Mila, the French opened fire on a band of Moslems waving the green-and-white F.L.N. flag and killed four. Army trucks brought throngs of Moslems from the countryside to the polls. Asked why she was voting, a Moslem woman answered, "I don't know. The soldiers told me to." But with the big cities still to report, the first two days of balloting in Algeria showed a satisfactory 70% turnout.

Clear Warning. Few could make sense of the involved and rhetorical propositions on which they were asked to vote. But De Gaulle had asked for a clear vote of confidence from the people, a personal plebiscite which would give the prior consent of France to his future acts—whether he negotiated with the rebel F.L.N., whether he did not, or whether he tried to set up an Algerian Algeria on his own. On New Year's Eve, De Gaulle had warned that "if the reply of the country were negative or indecisive because the majority was small or because it was marked by many abstentions—you well know what a blow this would be for me, preventing me from carrying out my task."