Newsman Raymond Aron at 50 is France's No. 1 commentator. A university professor until World War II, he joined General Charles de Gaulle in London, edited the Free French newspaper La France Libre. Since 1947 he has been chief columnist for the conservative Le Figaro, has proved himself a sturdy friend of the U.S., a lucid opponent of Marxism, a devastating critic of neutralism. In this article, written for TIME, he states the French case in North Africa.
There is no subject on which French and American opinion splits so sharply as on that of colonies in general and North Africa in particular.
From the American point of view, the French presence in North Africa is an example of colonialism, therefore deplorable and fit to be damned. And the Frenchman, meeting this summary damnation, has a tendency to answer that colonialism would have existed in America had the Indian population been encouraged instead of blighted by contact with the white invaders.
Let us drop these sterile arguments and try to understand the two major arguments of French opinion.
The Accomplishments
The first is that, almost unanimously—left and right, conservative and fellow traveler—French opinion does not admit that it has anything to be ashamed of in North Africa. Items:
¶ Tunisia had 1,500,000 inhabitants in 1881; it has 3,500,000 today.
¶ In Algeria, the population increased from about 2,500,000 a century ago to about 9,500,000 today.
¶ Except for Lebanon (which twelve years ago was a French mandate), "colonized" Tunisia has a higher density of paved roads and highways than any Arab country in the Middle East, more telephones per inhabitant, probably more hospital beds.
The second French argument is that any oversimplified solution, any sudden and total "liberation," would not resolve the .immense problems of North Africa. The departure of the French would inevitably precipitate chaos. The French minority of North Africa—1,000,000 in Algeria, 270,000 in Tunisia, 360,000 in Morocco—have contributed a share in the economic and cultural development of the country which is disproportionate to their numbers. In general, farming methods are more modern and profits are higher on lands cultivated by French colons. Emigration of Frenchmen might precipitate the collapse of the country's resources at a moment when the pressure of growing population is particularly strong; the handing over of all power to an improvised government might touch off an emigration which everyone wishes to avoid.
Beyond these arguments, which are self-evident to French eyes, there are the criticisms of what the French have failed to accomplish, and disagreements on measures which must be taken.
Population Pressures