The Rotting Oranges

All along the 1200-mile arc from Casablanca to Tunis last week, people--Arabs and French alike--mourned the sorry state of things with the same cliche: Nous sommes depasses par les evenements (We are outstripped by events). As long as the war in Algeria continued, there was not much hope for peace or stability in neighboring Tunisia and Morocco, and both of them were in sore trouble.

In desperate moments, Algerian rebel leaders spoke of "spreading the war" by involving Tunisia and Morocco in it too. The rulers of Tunisia and Morocco, torn between natural sympathy for their Algerian "brothers" and their own economic links with the French, hope to stay out. Three years after winning independence from France, both countries are plagued with poverty, unemployment and threats to authority.

TUNISIA. Volatile President Habib Bourguiba, 55, runs his nation like a one-man show, dismissing opponents, lecturing visitors, and ruling by decree. But he is not the complete master of Tunisia's fate, or of his own. His professions of loyalty to the West have earned him the hatred of the neutralists. Nasser's Radio Cairo beams an unceasing stream of Goebbels-like propaganda into Tunisia.

An estimated 350,000 people, one-tenth of the population, are unemployed, and last week Bourguiba ordered all men over 20 who are not in the army to join a conscript labor force in a desperate effort to jack up the impoverished economy. In a fit of nationalism, he refused to devalue his currency along with France, and thereby priced Tunisia's products out of the world market.

Bourguiba has become, in many senses, a prisoner of his Algerian guests. He has allowed them to establish supply depots, training camps, mutual-aid societies everywhere, and in the process the Algerians have infiltrated every branch of Tunisian administration. Bourguiba sees himself as a mediator between the French and the Algerians, but finds no takers. Says harassed Habib Bourguiba of his own land, with more truth than immodesty: "A stray bullet may kill me and the country would be plunged into anarchy."

MOROCCO. King Mohammed V, 49, has tried to be a "man of balance.'' but the scales are rapidly breaking down. All the King's men are agitating--city workers, rural tribesmen, worried businessmen and politicians squabbling for power. "I don't know where my people want to go," says the King. "But if they turn toward the East. I won't stand in their way. I'll abdicate."

Privately, many Moroccans wonder if the monarchy can survive Mohammed. His elder son, 29-year-old Moulay Hassan, is Crown Prince, although Moroccan kings traditionally have been chosen by a college of ulema. or religious judges. He is French-educated, intelligent, can exude kilowatts of charm. As commander in chief of the royal army fighting the rebels in the Rif (TIME, Dec. 22) and around Fez, he takes his job seriously, works hard. But Morocco's young nationalists do not hide their dislike for the prince and his way of life. Only a few weeks ago a Berlin businessman sued luxury-loving Moulay Hassan and his French actress friend Etchika Choureau for 45 million francs ($90,000) in debts.

The Mint-Tea Plot. Last week the most dynamic of Morocco's left-wingers, 38-year-old Mehdi Ben Barka, a grocer's son and onetime mathematics professor, rebelled against the conservative wing of the ruling Istiqlal (Independence; Party. His mutiny had been brewing for months over glasses of mint tea in nightlong talks. While most of Rabat was still sleeping on a Sunday morning, 2,000 of his delegates rode their bicycles into the capital, heard Ben Barka challenge the old guard's leadership. Rushing down from Tangier in his grey Oldsmobile to quell the revolt, 48-year-old Allal el Fassi, longtime leader of the Istiqlal, "expelled" Ben Barka and other rebels from the party. Prepared for this, Ben Barka promptly proclaimed a new leftist party, the Democratic Istiqlal. and branches popped up overnight in 14 towns. Tracts circulated through the medinas accused Ben Barka of leading Morocco to "atheism, Communism and ruin." No Communist, Ben Barka is an ambitious socialist who, on a visit to the U.S. two years ago, was particularly impressed by Puerto Rico's social experiments. He wants to drive the U.S. out of its Moroccan air and naval bases, but so apparently do most Moroccans these days.

Zealous nationalism has already proved costly to Morocco. It refused to devalue its franc when France did, and $40 million worth of capital (the equivalent of nearly two years' U.S. aid) fled the country. No one wanted to buy Morocco's products, now 17% higher. Last week, in an atmosphere of anarchy, oranges were rotting on the trees around Casablanca.

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