(10 of 10)
Unless the insurgents of Algiers were prepared to invade the mainland -which was unlikely -Pflimlin's physical control of France itself still seemed assured. But if the army continued to be a law unto itself in Algeria, with the manifest approval of the population there, the situation might well spell the downfall of the republican regime. Keenly aware of this, Pierre Pflimlin late last week sought to jog De Gaulle into disavowing the Algiers insurgents. He sent a personal envoy to Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises to ask the trenchant questions originally posed in the Assembly by Socialist Guy Mollet:
"Do you, De Gaulle, recognize the present government as the only legal one? Do you disavow the promoters of the Committee of Public Safety in Algiers? Are you ready, if called upon to form a government, to present your program to the National Assembly and, if not accepted, to withdraw?"
But when he got to the quiet house at Colombey -which had long since been placed under the polite surveillance of a platoon of gendarmes -Pflimlin's envoy had to content himself with assurances that the general would have another statement to make this week. The prudent housekeeper of Paris began to stock up on sugar, tinned milk and olive oil, ready for whatever might come.
* The original Committee of Public Safety, dominated by Robespierre, was the effective government of France during the French Revolutionary Terror, when some 2,500 people, including Marie Antoinette, were guillotined in the Place de la Concorde. * Only custom, not the constitution, requires President Coty to send for an elected Deputy to form a government.