The War in Algeria: French Barbers and Algerian Orphans

Algeria is the key to the North African question. It is through her that the French will either perish or come back to life. Heaven knows, it is not a matter of abandoning the security, honestly acquired property and legitimate liberties of those who have been established for generations, in some cases, on the other shore of the Mediterranean. In Algeria, only 12 per cent of these were born in France; the majority have deep and abiding ties with North Africa. We have no right to dismiss with a shrug of the shoulders the awkward despair of one Santiago, a farm official: “Where do you want me to go, after all? I have no other country to go to…”

Such people as these, whether we like it or not, are part of the Algeri...