Plea for the Possible

President Charles de Gaulle last week spoke to France and to riot-torn Algeria. His prose had a misty imprecision but, as usual, had a throb of grandeur about it. In the first of three radio and TV appeals for a "frank and massive" yes in the Jan. 8 referendum to his plan to give self-determination to Algeria, De Gaulle warned the Europeans of Algeria that their dream of transforming Algeria into a province of France and Moslems into proper Frenchmen was dead.

Said he: "Some may regret that routine, fear and prejudices have, in the past, hindered assimilation of the Moslems--supposing that were possible." But the fact that "the Moslem-- form eight-ninths of the population, and that this percentage is constantly increasing in their favor," led De Gaulle to the conclusion that "the Algeria of tomorrow, then, will be Algerian. The Algerians will conduct their own affairs, and it will be up to them alone to found a state with its own government, its own institution and its own laws."

The Silent Enigma. To the Moslems who two weeks ago stormed through the big cities of Algiers, Oran and Bone shouting their support of the F.L.N. rebels, De Gaulle cried, "Yes, we are proposing peace! We are ready at any time to receive the delegates of the people who are fighting us." In the talks with the F.L.N. rebels, which collapsed at Melun last summer, De Gaulle had insisted on discussing only the conditions of a ceasefire, and the rebels were not interested. Now he was ready to talk, "especially with the leaders of the rebellion," about "all the conditions under which the rights of self-determination can be exercised openly." The question was whether the F.L.N., thinking time on its side, would be in no mood to compromise, or to provide guarantees for the lives, liberty and property of the 1,000,000 Europeans in Algeria.

If new talks fail, De Gaulle would set up his own self-governing Algeria, with an administration decentralized according to "the geographical and ethnic diversity of Algeria"; presumably, this would mean redrawing department boundaries so that Moslems would have clear control in areas where they were in the vast majority. These "institutions," said De Gaulle, will be valid only "until the day when the future decisive consultation of the populations will either conform, modify, or reject them."

Though De Gaulle did not say so, he obviously hoped that this interim government would demonstrate the advantages of "association" with France. Equally obviously, he did not plan to hold the "decisive referendum" until the new Algerian Algeria had had a fair trial in terms of time.

The F.L.N. leadership maintained an enigmatic silence while measuring its opportunity. But De Gaulle's domestic opponents, left and right, exploded into protest. The French Communist Party, now playing the rebels' game, ordered its supporters to vote no in the referendum. In Spain General Raoul Salan and red-bearded Pierre Lagaillarde fumed in frustration; they had planned to slip into Algeria and rouse the ultras against De Gaulle. But French diplomatic pressure on Spain frustrated them instead. Admitted Lagaillarde last week, "Yes, I tried to board ship to get back to Algeria. So did Salan. We were stopped by the Spanish police."

Running Time. De Gaulle's solution may not suit everybody, but to most Frenchmen it seems to be the only one with a chance of success. At the United Nations, in tacit recognition of De Gaulle's obvious good intentions, France's former colonies in Africa and its Western allies united to defeat the demand for an Algerian referendum on self-determination held under U.N. auspices.

But, as a sign that time is running out for De Gaulle and France, the General Assembly, for the first time and by an overwhelming 63-to-8 vote, passed a resolution declaring that Algerian freedom is a U.N. responsibility. The warning seemed clear: either France settles the Algerian problem, or everybody else will soon be taking a hand.

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