Algerian Progress: Toward Reality and Negotiation

Abstract

silence that descended on the Algerian problem in the last days of winter, 1960-61, had suddenly become tense. Expectations had been brought to an unusual pitch by the fruitful discussions between President Bourguiba and General de Gaulle at the Chateau de Rambouillet late in February. If the death of King Mohammed V of Morocco at that very moment spelt a weakening of the stable element in North Africa which pressed for a rapid settlement of the Algerian rebellion, still there was hope that his young heir, Hassan II, could temporarily appease or master the dissident Left-wing forces demanding parliamentary government, and add his voice to the Tunisian President's in urging the GPRA (Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic) to enter into direct negotiations with France. For many reasons it was important that Morocco not succumb to civil strife over the long-delayed promises of the late King to introduce constitutional rule. Such a disruption of Algeria's western neighbour could create fresh difficulties in the ticklish manoeuvrings between the Fifth Republic and the GPRA. Doubtless Hassan would one day be compelled to dismantle the royal system. It simply seemed inopportune to complicate the Algerian affair (the last act in the drama of French withdrawal from North Africa) with the unsolved political crisis of this independent Kingdom. Hope was high that the fighting in Algeria, sporadic and small-scale as it had become, could shortly be ended. This was the enormous change that had been worked in the tangled story