Algeria: The Not So Secret Army

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The S.A.O. has turned this war into a three-way madness; most of the S.A.O.'s terror is directed against the Moslems, but they are also ready to strike at those Europeans who oppose Salan. The overwhelming majority goes along with him—either out of conviction or fear of reprisals. That support might well collapse if the French army in Algeria were to side decisively with De Gaulle. For the present, Algeria's Europeans, a melodramatic people, often say that their only choice is "the suitcase or the coffin"—to pack their bags and leave, or fight to the death.

City of God. At dusk, in the Algiers suburb of Le Ruisseau, Moslem patrons in the Café de l'Espérance looked up from their mint tea and coffee as Europeans sped by. From one car, machine-gun bullets swept the oilcloth tables, from the other a hand grenade was lobbed into the doorway. Five Moslem men and a child died instantly; 26 others sprawled wounded among the tumbled chairs. Revenge-seeking Moslem crowds raged into the streets, stoning passing cars. Three autos were halted, their European drivers dragged out and beaten to death.

The scenes of horror spread. In Oran, a legless Moslem veteran was pulled from his wheelchair and murdered, while near the city's imposing Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, European teen-agers gleefully urinated on the body of another slain Moslem. Near Algiers, a French jeweler was "executed" as a traitor by the S.A.O. because he planned "to flee the country when it was in danger." At industrial Bone, where 1,500 years ago St. Augustine preached the City of God, a bomb destroyed a Moslem tenement, killing ten women and children, and Europeans drove off rescuers with rocks and pistol shots.

Most European parents approve their sons' taking part in ratonnades—the hunting down of "rats," a French epithet for Moslems. Explained a father: "Our sons are all we have left to make us respected here. They are our only means of resistance." A Moslem says: "For each Moslem killed, we will kill a European." A European answers: "Since we are an eight-to-one minority in Algeria, eight Moslems will die for every one of us."

In less than ten months, Salan has caused the breakdown of government in Algeria and has substituted the S.A.O. as the effective authority. Salan's illegal transmitters repeatedly break into broadcasts of official Radio Algiers, particularly when De Gaulle speaks. S.A.O. orders for strikes, the hoarding of food, or the withdrawal of savings from banks are widely obeyed. Overnight, the S.A.O. can plaster Algiers with posters and proclamations. In the morning's mail, Europeans find mobilization orders, complete down to their actual army serial number, ordering service not in the army but in the S.A.O.

Revolution with Anisette. The S.A.O. phenomenon is in part explained by the special character of the 1,000,000 Europeans of Algeria. They hold French citizenship, but only one-quarter of them are of French origin. The rest are immigrants, or descendants of immigrants, from Spain, Italy, Greece, Malta, Corsica and other Mediterranean lands. Out of this melting pot has emerged a distinct race who call themselves pieds-noirs, or "black feet" (supposedly because most of their ancestors arrived without shoes), combining Spanish poise with Italian