FRANCE: I Give You My Word

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If there is anything not quite French about General Charles de Gaulle, it is his impatience with paper work. Rather than rely on secondhand reports, he prefers to find things out for himself. Last week, for the second time in a month, he boarded a twin-jet Caravelle and streaked towards Algeria to investigate in person. It was a salesman's visit, and the primary product to be sold—both to a grumbling army and a restless population—was the personality of the general himself.

Wearing a light suntan uniform with only the Cross of Lorraine as decoration, De Gaulle popped up at major cities and, by helicopter, at remote army posts, in three days covered almost every corner of Algeria. At one stop after another, he would gather 30 to 40 army officers about him, ply them with every sort of question. He was after details, not generalities—how many men were fighting in the area, were there enough to protect the farmers and guard the Tunisian and Moroccan borders?

But in a country where half the population is under 20, and 90% of the Moslems are illiterate, he was just as interested in local wages, unemployment and education as in military operations. The army's role, he insisted, is not only to fight the rebels, whom he invariably called either "fellaghas" or simply "the others." It was also to act as France's "interpreter between the two ethnic groups, the Moslems and the Europeans."

Spread the Word. Everywhere his appeal was the same: unity and equality. At Batna (pop. 20,000), he at first conspicuously ignored the small crowd of Europeans who turned out to greet him. Instead, he got out of his car, plunged into a group of Moslems who had been transported in trucks for the occasion, began clasping outstretched hands.

At an army post high up in the Traras Mountains near the Moroccan border, he quickly finished with the officers, reserved his most dramatic plea for the crowd of Moslems who had come from surrounding villages. "All who live here," he cried, "must be equal. We have begun to make them equal, and I give you my word that they will be. You men, repeat this to those in your villages. Greet the populations of the villages in behalf of General de Gaulle and in behalf of France."

While wooing the Moslems, De Gaulle struck quite a different pose in dealing with the dissident colonials and settlers who clamor for "integration" into France. In Algiers few flags waved to welcome him, and few Europeans turned out to cheer. In open disregard of their feelings, De Gaulle had brought along the minister the settlers dislike most, Socialist Guy Mollet, who rode in the second limousine and said nothing.

City walls bore a new slogan: "Vive Salan." General Raoul Salan, who is De Gaulle's chief deputy in Algeria, has secretly fostered opposition to his Premier, who now refers to him as "that Chinese general." De Gaulle made no effort to hide his displeasure with the colonial extremists. When members of the All Algeria Committee of Public Safety called on him to present a resolution, they were brusquely told that the general was behind schedule and could not receive them.