Go

"Here I am. Here I stay," reads the inscription on a war memorial in Philippeville, but few of the 35,000 Europeans living on their raw nerves in or near the embattled Algerian seaport now feel like making it their own motto. In the days before the restless, roving bands of fellagha began pillaging, burning, looting, killing, and destroying all that the French had brought to their country, busy, picturesque Philippeville had hoped to become "the Nice of Algeria."

But by last week, complained the manager of the Chamber of Commerce, the "only tourists we get are wearing uniforms." Philippeville's arched streets were dark and deserted by all but armed patrols and police cars from dusk to dawn. Social life had come to a standstill as Europeans huddled at home afraid to gather in crowds. For more than a year, native raiders led by a 34-year-old ex-carpenter named Zighout have staged an average of two attacks daily in the region. Once last August, they swept through town killing some 80 Europeans and warning the rest over the radio to "take your choice: a valise or a coffin." French repression was brutal, immediate and indiscriminate, taking an estimated 4,000 Moslem lives in the neighborhood, but it was not effective.

There remained the valise. Already 300 European families have left. Charming villas along the coast are empty and boarded up, for sale for a song. Those who could not leave wait and hope. "I'll go anywhere," said a clerk in Air France desperately seeking a transfer last week. "All I own is here," said an old farmer, "but find me a job somewhere, and I'll go." Paul-Dominique Crevaux, the pistol-packing young mayor of Philippeville, whose family has been in Algeria since 1847, was busy organizing a committee to resettle his citizens in Australia and South America. He had a special interest in the project, since he has already made up his mind about the future of his own family of five. "There is only one thing to do," he said, "go."

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