Mission in Doubt

"The most interesting thing about the French Empire," said a Frenchman last week, "is that it still exists."

Judging by bloody revolts and clamorous cries for freedom rising from many of the Empire's 66.6 million people, this seemed a just appraisal. The French, like the British, face seething nationalism among colonial peoples. But there are two important differences: 1) France stands before her colonies as a nation beaten in the war; 2) the French are hampered, as the British are not, by powerful Communist parties at home and in the colonies. The Communists did not create France's colonial troubles, but they aggravate them. Last week, although most Frenchmen did not know or care much about it, a cauldron of hatred was seething over half the French colonial world.

Madagascar. A shocked French Assembly last week heard details of revolt in Madagascar, the big, beautiful island off Africa's southeast coast. Paris estimated that in March and April, at least, 180 Frenchmen and 1,000 pro-French natives have been butchered by white-turbaned, spear-waving extremists of the Malagasy Renovation Party (M.D.R.M.). Despite French airborne reinforcements, the attacks still continued. Deputy Jules-Mathieu Castellani, a teak-faced Madagascar planter, recounted gruesome tortures :

"Pierre Decouzon, a venerable Frenchman who had been in Madagascar for 45 years . . . was buried alive after his children had been killed before his eyes. . . . Jules Saury . . . was tortured, and, while still alive, cut to pieces by the native surgeon whom he considered his friend. The pieces were then thrown to the dogs in front of other members of his family."

Communist deputies were the only ones who applauded (feebly) when Madagascar M.D.R.M. Deputy Joseph Raseta blamed low wages, French repression, and the "savagery" of Senegalese troops for what was going on in Madagascar.

Indo-China. The French are slowly making military headway in Indo-China against the Viet Minh* revolutionary party, headed by a clever 55-year-old goat-bearded Communist, Ho Chih-minh. Did military progress mean much? A few weeks ago, miles inside the French lines, TIME Correspondent Robert Sherrod, riding in a French military convoy, came upon the scene of an ambush. The rebels had blown up the convoy ahead of him, killing 48 persons, some horribly. Sherrod cabled this impression of the war:

"There are about 350 graves in Hanoi's French cemetery, of whom about 50 were civilians, some mutilated--women ripped open with bayonets, heads chopped off, or buried alive. Probably several thousand Annamites were killed and a couple of hundred Chinese--the Annamite-French quarter is smashed to bits and what French shells and bombs left undone the Annamites themselves finished by burning.

"Both Hanoi and Haiphong are ghost cities. Only 17,000 of Hanoi's 100,000 Annamites remain in the city.

"It is the same everywhere that there has been conflict between French and Viet Minh. The town of Hai-duong, near Hanoi, was for a time Ho Chih-minh's headquarters and was recently taken by the French. It is the most utterly destroyed place since Lidice. Perhaps it is worse. Every building was burned or wrecked before the Viet Minh left. A favorite method is taking a pickax and weakening around the window frames of brick walls until they collapse."

Sherrod's conclusion: "Despite the attitude of many Frenchmen that this is a war to the death between white and colored races, it is obvious that the French must eventually treat with the rebels."/-

Tunisia. The French record in North Africa was, on the whole, far better than in Indo-China, but the future of North Africa--France's overseas granary--worries the French as much or more. In Tunisia the nationalist Destour Party threatened a one-day general strike this week in "mourning" for the 66-year-old tie with France. Destour Leader Salah Ben Youssef wants total independence, a Tunisia tied to the Arab League, and full membership in U.N. Sorbonne-trained, and often in French prisons for nationalist activity, Ben Youssef says: "In prison you have got nothing to do but think, and that is why we out-think the French."

Algeria. In the oldest of France's North African possessions, and the most "assimilated" to French culture, there is an independence movement too. Fiery, 54-year-old Messali Hadj, Algerian Arab nationalist, toured the restless Kabylie district in March, repeated in village after village: "For 116 years we have been under the French yoke. Still we sleep on the ground, we wear only a simple gandourah, we walk barefoot, and most of us go three or four days without eating a piece of cake."

Morocco. Suave, white-robed Sultan Sidi Mohamed of Morocco last month shattered precedent by making a trip to the internationalized Moroccan city of Tangier. There he cut from his prepared speech a friendly reference to the French Union, lauded the Arab League. Said he: "Morocco is . . . solidly linked with the Arab countries of the Orient."

From Casablanca TIME Correspondent Andre Laguerre cabled: "The French settlers are worried about governmental instability in Paris, worried about Socialist direction of imperial politics because they think Socialist theorizing does not fit in well with the hard realities of administering a mixed nation (Arab and Berber) where democratic slogans have little meaning for the natives.

"Can one see evidence of the unrest in the gaudy, noisy streets of Casablanca? It would be wrong to give an exaggerated impression of panic, but. there is some such evidence. I note more sullen faces than were to be seen during the war years. Ahmed Moulouya Hadj, a bearded, bronzed Arab who has brought his vegetables from the sub-Atlantic plains to the Casablanca markets for the last 14 years, told me: 'We farmers are no longer the only ones who count. The country is becoming industrialized, with new habits, new men and new ideas. I am not sure what will happen, but Allah will decide for the best.' "

(Allah was getting help from an odd quarter. The veteran French Communist, Andre Marty, visited Algiers last month to assure Arabs that there was no conflict between Marx and Mohamed.)

"L'Empire Est Mort?" What did it add up to? In the Paris Ministry of Overseas France hangs a sign "L'Empire est mort. Vive I'Union Franc,aise." That was the hope. The new French Constitution provides for a union of all under the French flag in a parliament where the voice of the overseas areas would equal that of the motherland. But the French Union, though it already had its birth certificate, would not be born until Paris could come to terms with some of the larger domains such as Morocco and Indo-China. That might be too late.

Meanwhile, France, justly proud of la mission civilisatrice, its mission of cultural assimilation, could point to the rostrum of its own upper parliamentary body, the Council of the Republic, where a Guiana-born Negro, Gaston Monnerville, presides. Able Lawyer Monnerville fought with the Maquis in central France, rose to the rank of major.

France, militarily and economically weak and politically divided, counts heavily on the cultural link which Monnerville represents. How strong is the link? Until a few years ago French cultural influence was very deep in Syria and Lebanon (two areas that France has actually lost). But with the shelling of Damascus (TIME, June 11, 1945) French influence vanished almost overnight. Reports TIME Correspondent Herbert Merillat: "French, traditionally the second language of educated Syrians, is now seldom heard in Damascus. French newspapers are no longer printed. French cinemas are not allowed. French diplomats even have trouble getting Syrian servants."

In Paris last week Premier Ramadier summed up France's present imperial status: "Sitting on eleven million square kilometers of dynamite is not a comfortable position."

* Viet Nam Do Clap Dong Minh (League of Independence for Viet Nam) is a political party. Viet Nam (ancient Annamese name for Tonkin, Annam and Cochin China) is the name of the country which Viet Minh seeks to control.

/- This well-nigh hopeless political situation has recently been complicated by two native religious cults, Hoahao and Caodaism. The Caodaist leader, Phan Oong Tac, urges his 1,000,000 followers in Cochin China to back the French. Dr. Le Van Hoach, president of the French-supported Provisional Republic of Cochin China, a devout Caodaist, explains that his faith combines Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, Mohammedanism, Christianity, and communication with the other world by table-tipping. The Hoahao were formerly pro-French, but went over to Viet Minh when their leader, Huynh Phu So, got a job on the Viet Minh Executive Committee. Most Aninamites are animists; many make no sharp distinction between faiths, and work on the principle that if one religion is good, three are better.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.