Overwhelming Support

France took the signing of the ceasefire with relief but without much show of emotion. In two Red Paris suburbs, the news was received with the popping of firecrackers, but that was about the only demonstration. Even the Secret Army terrorists seemed dispirited: the week in Paris was marred by only two plastic bomb explosions.

The S.A.O. apparatus in France, depleted by frequent arrests, was further hampered by roadblocks, where police searched cars and checked identity papers. (They turned up an unexpected dividend by capturing one Jean Pierre Schecroun, 33, a former Beaux Arts student long wanted for his skillful forgeries of paintings by Braque, Leger and Picasso.) De Gaulle moved confidently ahead, appointing a trusted supporter, Politician-Diplomat Christian Fouchet. to the important post of High Commissioner in Algeria and naming a Moslem as chairman of the Algerian Provisional Executive (see box).

To wind up the terrorism, De Gaulle told his Cabinet that the S.A.O. must be "pitilessly repressed" and ordered that the "insurrection" in Algiers and Oran be "broken by all possible means."

A minority of the National Assembly raged against the ceasefire. Right-wing Deputies stood to attention while one of their number orated that "abandonment" of Algeria was an illegal act. Algerian Affairs Minister Louis Joxe, showing the strain of the long negotiations at Evian. assured the chamber that the nationality of those Algerian residents who wanted to remain French citizens would be protected. Pied-noir Deputies from Algeria tried to howl him down, and chanted. "Treason! Treason! Treason!"

Yet for all their screams of protest, no Deputy had the courage to offer a promised censure motion against De Gaulle. Even the most rabid of them know the truth: France so overwhelmingly supports peace in Algeria that any Deputy in Metropolitan France who goes on record against it cannot hope for reelection.

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