Trailed by two French submarines, discreetly watched by cruising French aircraft, the rusty white 400-tonner with the chipped smokestack never had a chance. As she zigzagged into Algerian waters last week a French destroyer escort hove in sight, ordered her to heave to. Said the French commander, peeping under the hatches: "A floating arsenal." When the old vessel's contraband cargo was laid out on the quay at Mers-el-Kebir, the French army found sufficient mortars, machine guns, rifles and pistols to equip 3,000 guerrillas.
More important to the French than the arrest of the arms runners was the identification of the arms...
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