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The U.S. would not be represented there in fact, but would be very much present in spirit. The U.S. is, as the Russians charge, increasing its diplomatic activity in North Africa—not against the French, but in the interest of seeing that events get no further out of hand. In informal backstage chats, U.S. diplomats show their support of Arab moderates. They hope the Rabat conferees will abandon any thought of establishing an Algerian government in exile—which Tunisia, and perhaps Morocco, would be forced to recognize; such a step, the U.S. is convinced, would drive France to break off all relations with them. But for the idea of a North African federation the U.S. has nothing but enthusiasm. In such a federation, linked to France by some kind of commonwealth arrangement, lies what the U.S. regards as the best hope of an end to the Algerian fighting.
Encouraging Setback. The federation scheme is anathema to French right-wingers, but it has long been accepted in principle by some French moderates, and in Paris last week it was the moderates who were gaining ground. Waspish Georges Bidault, the first aspirant to succeed fallen Premier Felix Gaillard (TIME, April 28), could not even persuade his own Popular Republican Party to support him in forming a government; in fact, only one of the party's 75 members in the Assembly had joined him in voting to bring down Gaillard. Having given Bidault and his policy of even harsher prosecution of the Algerian war a chance, President René Coty next turned to big (6 ft. 2 in.), earnest René Pleven, a middle-of-the-roader who has suggested that the ideal relationship between France and her former colonies would be "a federation of republics."
At the news of Pleven's nomination, Tunisia's President Habib Bourguiba promptly announced that he no longer intended to reopen Tunisia's U.N. Security Council complaint against France over French air force bombing of the village of Sakiet-Sidi-Youssef (TIME, Feb. 17). Said Bourguiba: "Monsieur Bidault's setback is an encouraging sign. His failure shows that there does not exist in the French Parliament . . . any majority for an extremist policy."