Violence & Vacillation

Across the Mediterranean to troubled North Africa poured the greatest flow of reinforcements since the days when Rommel's Afrika Korps held sway. The French cruiser Montcalm landed a battalion of French infantrymen at Casablanca, and a steamer brought 400 more; nine battalions started moving to Algeria, following the six from Germany that had already arrived; transport aircraft brought naval commandos. Back in France, 100,000 conscripts had their period of service lengthened indefinitely; 50,000 reservists were recalled to the colors. All told, the rapid build-up brought French strength in colonial North Africa to some 200,000 men --more than there are on the Rhine.

The politicians hoped that the French punitive expeditions had already broken the back of the Arab revolt; yet last week the killings went on. In Morocco, nationalist saboteurs burned French gasoline dumps; in Algeria, rebel bands fought a four-hour battle with the Foreign Legion, and 54 died. Even in relatively tranquil Tunisia, 23 rebels and eleven Frenchmen were killed in a sudden outbreak. Total casualties in North Africa since Aug. 20: close to 3,000 dead, thousands more wounded.

Angry Cabinet. Violence in North Africa was matched by unseemly vacillation in Paris. Fumbling for a political solution to Morocco's dynastic question, Premier Edgar Faure presided at a bitter twelve-hour Cabinet session--the longest anyone in Paris could remember. Faure asked the conservatives in his right-center coalition to accept the "double dismissal plan" he had worked out with Morocco's leaders (TIME, Sept. 5). The hardest man to convince was Faure's own Foreign Minister, Antoine Pinay, whose right-wing Independents are strongly influenced by the pro-colon lobby in the French National Assembly. As the long angry afternoon wore on, little groups of Ministers broke out of the chamber to cool off in the garden. Before the session ended, both Pinay and Faure had threatened to resign.

What probably saved the government was the knowledge that the resignation of Faure, a member of the moderate Left, might compel the right-wing parties to form their own government. This in turn would probably consolidate the non-Communist Left (Socialists, left-wing Catholics, some Radicals) against them in a coalition led by ex-Premier Pierre Mendes-France. Whatever happens in Morocco, or anywhere else, the right-wingers are determined to keep energetic little Mendes from climbing back to power. The right-wing game is to use Faure (a fellow Radical of Mendes, and once his Finance Minister) to hold off Mendes. Faure, of course, understanding their need, made them pay.

Pinay had the tough task of opposing Faure enough to satisfy his own conservative supporters, but. not enough to bring the government down. In the end, he shifted his position and accepted Faure's plan. Defense Minister Pierre Koenig went along, too, announcing with a martyred air: "I will suffer your solution."

Dynastic Desperation. The "solution" involved France in a desperate game of dynastic musical chairs. Premier Faure proposed to:

P: Replace Sidi Mohammed ben Moulay Arafa, the puppet Sultan whom the French installed in Morocco two years ago, with a three-man regency council. Its senior member: El Mokri, 108, Morocco's feeble old Grand Vizier.

P:Replace Grandval. whom the French colons detest, with General Pierre Boyer de Latour du Moulin, the successful Resident General of Tunisia (see box).

P:Return the exiled Sultan ben Youssef from Madagascar to France.

P:Set up a representative Moroccan government under Fatmi ben Slimane, onetime Pasha of Fez.

Always the cheery optimist, Faure predicted that the whole Moroccan mess would be cleared up by Sept. 12.

Spontaneous Evaporation. Landing at Rabat a few hours after Grandval had been ousted, the new French Resident General, General de Latour, took up his command in Morocco. He went to the Sultan's palace to present his respects to the man he had come to fire, Ben Moulay Arafa. Bands played, and the Sultan's honor guard shuffled to attention as the lean Frenchman climbed the stairs to the throne room where Arafa sat waiting. "Everyone desires to see the spirit of friendship reign," said De Latour, looking uncomfortable. Replied the Sultan, peering uneasily: "We would be happy to see you as soon as possible to discuss the problems which interest our country."

The chief problem, the old man knew, was his own deposition. His supporters, many of them French, wanted him to stay, if only as a proof that Imperial France alone is the kingmaker in Morocco. The deposition of the Sultan is "unconstitutional" wrote El Glaoui, the old Pasha of Marrakech, who himself engineered the deposition of Ben Youssef.

Actually, Ben Moulay Arafa, who does not like being Sultan and holes up in small palace quarters once occupied by one of Ben Youssef's concubines, is stalling for time, and hoping for a fat French pension in return for abdicating (his advisers are reportedly asking 3 billion francs--almost $8,500,000). General de Latour marched out of his interview with Moulay Arafa, conspicuously and deliberately omitting the traditional Moroccan wish that his reign would be long and prosperous.

The French plan to organize the Sultan's deposition by a process known as "spontaneous evaporation." This will consist of looking into the throne room and discovering that the Sultan is no longer there, at which point Faure's regency council will rush in to fill the void.

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