NEW YORK—President Charles de Gaulle's victory in the referendum on his Algerian policy means that he will now have to move as quickly as possible to bring peace to this war-torn area, and negotiations will have to go on with the rebel leaders as to how provisional autonomy is to work. You may be quite sure that there will be an early move for a date to be set when the Algerians will vote definitely on their own political future.
The French living in Algeria undoubtedly feel unhappy about this result. It looks as though many of them might decide that, though they have lived there a long while and have considered Algeria a part of France, this may not eventually be the final decision. It may well be that we will see more and more of the French population returning to France as soon as they can.
Overseas possessions on whatever basis—unless they actually are free confederations—do not seem to be the order of the future.
The Belgian situation in the Congo also is different. Undoubtedly, Belgian interest centers in the one province—Katanga—where there are natural resources that have been projected for Belgian investment. But the Belgians may not eventually be able to retain this area in their hands or under their supreme influence.
The nationalist surge in the whole of Africa—and, in fact, in many parts of the world where new nations are coming into being—is so great that it seems that little by little we have to face the fact that any type of connection between old colonial countries and their former possessions is on a voluntary basis, or there will be no assurance of continuing cooperation.
We in the United States are becoming the refuge for large numbers from Cuba who disagree with the present government, and this is something we will not be able to handle easily. There are already murmurs from Miami and other Florida centers that they will need help from other parts of the country.
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The revelation in The New York Times Tuesday morning of a partially hidden airfield in Guatemala, where commando-like forces are being drilled in guerrilla warfare, seems to me to point to the absolute necessity that any such action taken in a Central or South American country by the United States must be an agreed action by our government and the Organization of American States.
But here we have the strange situation of a newspaper uncovering the story, and it is claimed that we helped to build the airstrip and that foreign personnel, largely from the U.S., is drilling the Guatemalans. Also, it is said that we are assisting with material and in the construction of ground and air facilities.
We are told that the President of Guatemala, Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes, and all the other government authorities insist that this military effort is expected to meet an offensive which they fear at any moment will be made by Cuba. On the other hand, opponents of the Ydigoras Administration insist that the preparations are for an offensive against the Cuban regime of Fidel Castro and that we in the U.S. are planning, directing and in large part paying for the whole undertaking.
Our Embassy in Guatemala is maintaining silence on the subject, the newspaper story says, and it also adds that one Guatemalan authority who negotiated with the U.S. for more assistance said that the request had been turned down because the U.S. felt it went beyond the needs of defensive operations.
This all seems to indicate that this may be the reason why the Castro regime has been insisting that the U.S. was going to invade Cuba at almost any moment. Most of us here in the U.S. have felt that this was a most preposterous idea and that nothing of the kind could possibly happen.