Return of the Native

When Charles de Gaulle was born there 75 years ago, Lille was one of the busiest cities in Europe: a churning, chimneyed conglomeration of machine shops, railway yards, textile mills and candy factories that dominated the French industrial north. But as De Gaulle grew in stature, Lille declined. Last week, when le grand Charles returned to his birthplace on the first political tour of his new administration, he found a city hard hit by unemployment and recession. He also found a frosty reception for a onetime favorite son.

Lille's Socialist Mayor Augustin Laurent and most city councilors boycotted the welcoming ceremonies, and crowds were sparse when De Gaulle's black convertible Simca rolled up in a drumming rain. De Gaulle looked glum himself as he toured the annual Lille trade fair and peered myopically through thick-lensed horn-rims at model rail ways, bridal gowns of Lille lace, and a pair of red-trimmed pelicans that expressed the mood of the day by turning their backs on the President.

What galled Lille was the frigid Gaullist disregard of the need for French industrial expansion--a common complaint of voters in last December's close presidential election. "The image of the industrial north as a self-sufficient, rich region is little more than a myth," complained a Chamber of Commerce speaker at the luncheon for De Gaulle. "The internationalizing of modern Europe should force France into relying on the few strong regions she possesses, giving them a better chance of catching up with the European industrial level. Due to their economic policies, Belgium and Holland have attracted a great number of foreign businesses of considerable magnitude."

De Gaulle responded not with promises but with exhortation. "We want the region to adapt to its difficulties," he said, "to triumph over them. It is the men, and not only the things, that must learn to adapt themselves to our epoch." With that he swept on to nearby Dunkirk, to be greeted by a protest strike of 6,000 steel-and dockworkers. In Calais, the reception was a bit warmer: Mayor Jacques Vendroux is the brother of De Gaulle's wife Yvonne.

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