The Walls of Distrust

The two Arab leaders who have most to lose from the French-Algerian war met last week in Rabat, Morocco's Sultan Mohamed V, and Tunisia's Habib Bourguiba, each ruler of a country one year old, had much to talk about, but their main occupation was: how to get peace and order established in Algeria, which lies between them. Both Morocco and Tunisia need money, goods and trained men to stabilize their fledgling countries and, though they had fought hard and bitterly for their independence from France, they knew that their best chance of help lay in friendship with France. But how could they be friendly toward France so long as the war in Algeria fans fanatical Arab hatred, gives France the excuse to garrison 80,000 French troops in Morocco, 30,000 in Tunisia, and keeps the top Algerian rebel leaders in Paris' Sante prison?

Typical of their difficulties was the attitude of Algeria's National Liberation Front Leader Mohammed Lamine Deba-ghine, who, in Tunisia last week, declared:

"The Algerian nation cannot accept any solution that does not imply as a primary condition the recognition of its independence." Said Bourguiba: "We just have to end this vicious circle." Added a Moroccan minister: "It's fine to know how to throw a grenade, but you have to know where and when to throw it." With the aid of the Moroccans, whip-sharp Premier Bourguiba began working on a formula of self-determination by which the Algerians might compromise profitably with France, as Morocco and Tunisia had done. Tunis had settled for the formula of "internal autonomy"; for Moroccans the happy phrase was "independence within interdependence." Now Bourguiba proposed a referendum in which Algerians could choose between 1) independence, 2) status quo with a reform program, 3) federation with some form of internal autonomy. Snorted Moroccan Rabble-Rouser Allal el Fassi, who takes his cue from Nasser: "The time is not yet ripe for solutions."

But the last word has not been heard from the Algerian revolution committee, which numbers 34 members, but lacks anyone with the vision or the experience of Bourguiba or the Sultan. Undaunted, Bourguiba returned home from Morocco proclaiming: "We will have something to show in a few weeks, I hope. It's a matter of breaking down the wall of distrust."

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