THE TABLET November 30th, 1957. VOL, 210, No. 6132

Published as a Newspaper

TFT TABLET

A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

FOUNDED IN 1840 NOVEMBER 30th, 1957

N1NEPENCE

The French Proprietor: Contrasting Colonial Traditions

Central African Federation: Constitutional Problems. By Patrick Wall, M.P.

Conversations in. Eastern Germany: The Contrast with Poland or Hungary

The Lambeth Conference: Modernists and Reunionists. By J. J. Coyne

A Valiant Woman: Family Life in the Fleet Prison. By P. A. Boyan

Advent Meditations: I. “ Happiness Hereafter.” By llltu d Evans, O.P.

Critics’ Columns : Notebook : Book Reviews : Letters : Chess

MOSLEMS AND THE ATLANTIC COMMUNITY I T is now plain that President Eisenhower will be too ill to come to Paris for the very important NATO Meeting, and that under the American Constitution no one can adequately take his place. He is not quite half way through his second term, and the prospect is at best that he will have to take much greater care, which will mean in practice delegating more authority. This is not really satisfactory, since a President’s choice is so personal, and can be so arbitrary. Both Colonel House at one period, and Harry Hopkins at another, played roles of the first importance because they secured the ear of a President on a basis of personal devotion. The American Constitution was framed by men who considered themselves the victims of a monarchical system, who were full of precautions to limit the Executive, but who, because they were in fact living in a world of monarchies, created a very monarchical kind of presidency. The subsequent development of modern government has all the time increased the presidential powers. The Secretary of State is his nominee, whom he can appoint or remove, and when the President is a sick man there will always be uncertainties about the Secretary of Stale's position.

To the French the President’s illness is a particular blow, for they were relying upon him to come to Paris, and to sense a very different atmosphere from that in which he lives at Washington. They wanted him to renew the memories of 1944, and to exercise his conspicuous gift for achieving unity between men of different nationalities. Mr. Macmillan’s visit to Paris was primarily a gesture ; the important thing is that he went there, to show British concern at the estrangement. The French Ministers—the larger background of whose attitude is discussed in our editorial— know perfectly well that the question of arms for Tunisia had been discussed for over two months, but the French public did not know this, and were not prepared for it, and the new French Cabinet did not feel at all strong enough, even if inclined, to quieten its own public. On the contrary, it wants the British and American Governments to realise how deeply Frenchmen feel. The arms delivery came at an unfortunate moment, just before the new Government asks the French Chamber to agree to the very reasonable statute which provides for free elections under international supervision, for an Assembly in Algeria with which the French Government will then negotiate. The extreme Algerian nationalists reject this proposal, because they know that elections would show that they are at present in a minority, and that there is a great deal of moderate opinion, people who genuinely want peace and prosperity, not murderous violence.

It accordingly becomes very important that the neighbouring Governments of Morocco and Tunisia should play moderating roles. But they both have a temptation to want to see a weak independent Algeria, whose leaders they could guide, rather than a remaining French bridgehead. President Bourguiba continues to proclaim himself proWestern ; but it is singularly unfortunate that on the morrow of his receiving American and British arms, his Government should pass a law retrospectively making it an offence to have worked for the French in the last period of the French Protectorate. This is a law which is presumably a way of seizing the property of the people who are now in the minority, to be judged as collaborators with a foreign occupying Power. When such a measure is made the subject of remonstrance, President Bourguiba’s adherents say it is necessary, in view of the state of local feeling ; that, in short, France and the West have no option but to support the President in whatever he may judge it necessary to do to placate and hold his own people.

One of the consequences of the Tunisian dispute has been a setback for Mr. Maudling. There was always a wide gulf between French and British ideas, between the French desire for a Common Market with a high tariff wall and the British •idea of a larger and looser free trade area. At the moment the French are not feeling disposed to make any great concessions. They have had concessions made to them, the chief being the acceptance by Germany and Italy of the inclusion of Algeria, and of other overseas French possessions, in a market of some two hundred million