Algiers last week had its firstand perhaps its lastNew Year's diplomatic reception. In his tree-shaded villa. Les Oliviers, overlooking Algiers bay. General Charles de Gaulle served port and caviar to handshaking representatives of eleven nations which, in some form or other, have recognized the French Committee of National Liberation. By next January, the men of Algiers hoped, a reception could be held in liberated Paris.
Behind the Algiers Committee lay some seven months of painful, slow accomplishment; ahead, its hardest task. What the Committee wanted now, on the eve of invasion, was...