FRENCH IMPERIALISM FEARS ANOTHER CUBA
"Algeria must not be for France what Cuba is for the United States!" With this dramatic declaration before the Commission on Foreign Affairs of the National Assembly, de Broglie, Secretary of State in Charge of Algerian Affairs, stated the essence of de Gaulle'!s policy in relation to the ‘Ben Bella government.
This is the reason for the extreme caution which the de Gaulle govern~ ment has displayed over the extensive nationalizations in Algeria. French - imperialism believes that the policy of temporizing will prove more effec- -tive than the brutal blows which Eisenhower and Kennedy rained on the ‘Castro government in response to the agrarian reform,
The de Gaulle government has even proceeded so adroitly as to avoid any open sympathy for the Kabylie uprising or the border assault launched by King Hassan II.
“The chief concern of French big business is to keep its hands on the vast oil resources of the Sahara which come under Algerian jurisdiction, The Algerian government, which is primarily interested at this point in possible revenues from the oil, has responded by assuring the French that the oil will not be nationalized.
At the hearing October 17 before the Commission on Foreign Affairs, de Broglie was reported to have declared further :
"Co-operation, to survive, will have to be adapted with realism to . a situation profoundly modified by the injuries done to the patrimony of the French in Algeria, First of all it is up to the Algerian government to undertake its responsibilities in regard to a situation which it has itself created. In the present conjuncture, French policy, pragmatic above all, is attempting to defend with vigor the fundamental interests of France without breaking the privileged relations, which for multiple reasons, unite the two states." .
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