THE TABLET February 15tb, 1958. VOL. 211, No. 6143

THE TABLET

Published as a Newspaper

A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

FOUNDED IN 1840

FEBRUARY 15th, 1958

N1NEPENCE

The Ice at the Summit: Mr. Dulles R e laxes

Deadlock in Cyprus : A R ep o r t from a C o rre sp ondent in N icosia

The Bombing o i Monte Cassino : By F r id o von Senger und E tte r lin

Eleven-Plus Catholics : S trik ing F igures from M id d lesb rough. By T erence C lu deray

A Modern Lazarus : Mr. G ra h am G re ene’s New Play. By A lex M a th e so n Cain

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

MULTIRACIAL SOCIETIES

^ f H E N M. Gaillard told the French Chamber that

France is not going back on Tunisian independence, that remark exposed the gulf that separates the French public from the North African situation, for there could be no question of any such thing.

The French attack on Sakiet is a tragedy, especially for M. Bourguiba, who has long shown himself one of the most moderate and reasonable of the new generation of North African nationalists. He is a man very conscious of the underlying weakness both of Tunisia as a State and of himself as its ruler, and he has run big risks in maintaining a policy of friendship with France and a special position for the French in the new Tunisian State. He has been under constant pressure from the Algerian rebels to give them a much more whole-hearted backing, and the present position, where Tunisian soil is in fact used as a base, is something it is not in his power to alter. The area of contiguity with Algeria is very large, and without natural frontiers, and the British and American Governments agreed to give M. Bourguiba weapons because he could make such a very strong case that he needed them for the stability of his own Government. Yet M. Bourguiba is now dubbed by the Daily Telegraph, always quick to uphold the French standpoint, as “ this personage,” as though there was any prospect of the French finding a Tunisian better disposed towards them, more eager to find ways of reconciling Algerian—or Tunisian or Moroccan—nationalism with a continued French presence in North Africa and the effective protection of the large French interests there.

The attack on Sakiet was made without the knowledge of the French Government. It was, apparently, the local responsibility of the local French Commander. But, if so, he should be removed in order to convince the Tunisians th a t the error of judgment and the resulting casualties are both deeply and genuinely regretted by the French.

At the other end of Africa, Sir Edgar Whitehead will return from his peaceful occupations in Washington to some rough weather in Southern Rhodesia, where he succeeds Mr. Garfield Todd.

The failure of Mr. Garfield Todd to stay in the saddle is one of those relatively minor events from which big consequences may flow. As we are informed, his colleagues made a common front against him not because his views on NATO policy are too liberal but because he was proving a very difficult colleague, about whose actions they were not always informed or consulted.

Though these are very early days in the evolution of African franchises, a great deal is going to depend on the way developments are handled. It is going to call for high political skill to reassure the European settlers that the country is not being stampeded into a premature extension of the franchise, and at the same time to convince not only the educated Africans but their supporters outside that there is a genuine intention of incorporating them in the political life of the country, and th a t the tests of electoral worth are not going to be made too impossibly high at the moment. This is much more a problem for the Federation as a whole than for Southern Rhodesia. But where the psychological impact is so important, the two systems ought to develop together, although this may come to mean a faster development in Southern Rhodesia in order to keep step with the Federation and try to make the Nyasaland Africans accept the Federation.

The African Affairs Board has sent a memorial to the Commonwealth Relations Office against the electoral act which the Federation has just passed, on the ground that the requirements for an African voter are much too high. The arrangement is that, the more education an African can show, the less income need he show in order to qualify ; but both the amount of education and the amount of income are very f a r in excess of what is possible for nearly the whole of the native population. An African with no educational qualifications must have