Friendly Advice

Beset as he was by the EDC fight, Premier Mendes-France found time to keep one prior promise: an attempt to bring peace and stability to France's shaky, strife-torn North African empire in Tunisia. Mendes himself, in his first weeks in office, had promised the Bey of Tunis internal sovereignty and an all-Tunisian government. Last week talks designed to bring substance out of the shadow of the Mendes proposals began in Tunis.

To give the talks the best possible chance of success, Mendes restored to legal status the Neo-Destour Party of nationalists, outlawed since 1938. Several hundred Tunisians, held in isolation or in jail, were amnestied (though not any accused of murder). Travel controls were eased. These improvements followed the suggestions of Habib Bourguiba, exiled Neo-Destour leader, who is now sojourning at a villa not far from Paris and giving friendly advice to the Mendes-France government.

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