@ The French record in Algeria

Century of plunder

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FTER France had launched

her military conquest of

Algeria last century, a Colonel
de Montagnac wrote:

“Here is how war must be
waged against the Arabs. Kill
all the men from the age of
15; seize all the women and
children, ship them off to the
Marquesse Islands or else-
where; in a word, wipe out
all who will not throw them-
selves at our feet like dogs.”

About the same time (1840),
a deputy named Bugeaud told
the Chamber of Deputies:

“Settlers must be placed
wherever there is good water
and fertile land; without con-
cern as to whom the land be-
longs.”

French right to seize the
lands was the right of armed
might.

Today, though the colonial-
ists are careful not to express
themselves with the crudity of
Colonel de Montagnac, France
is still relying on arms, blood-
shed and repression to bolster
her regime in Algeria,

Sententious phrases in Paris
don’t bring to life Algerian
corpses riddled by French bul-
lets or shattered by French
bombs. |

Far from being “a handful
of rebels” or “bands of ter-
rorists” (as the French gov-
ernment would have us be-
lieve), the Algerian movement
for independence is a tide that
is rising to inundate the
French colonialists who have
brought desperate misery to
Algeria.

eS

The great majority of Al-
gerians are land-starved peas-
ants. They share between them
only one-third (the worst
third) of the land. Two-thirds
(the best) belongs to big
French companies and other
landlords.

Hundreds of thousands have
no land.

A French investigator, Louis
Chevalier, has shown that an-
nual consumption of grain (on
which the mass of the popu-
lation mainly subsists) fell
from 560 pounds per person
in 1871 to 280 pounds in 1940
and 224 pounds in 1948.

Although the Moslem popu-
lation (nine million, as against
one million of European des-
cent) desperately needs grain
and does not drink wine, the
area under grape cultivation
steadily increases, at the ex-
pense of grain and other crops.

Big landowners draw enor-
mous profits from export of
Algerian wines, to the detri-
ment not only of the Algerian
people but also of the small
viticulturists in France.

While Algerians go drastic-
ally short of their needs, heavy
proportions of Algerian pro-
duction are shipped away.

The harvest to big French
companies from this plunder
of the country is illustrated
by the declared net profits of
24 companies involved which
reached 6,579 million francs in

1953.
No wonder the French capi-
talists cry “Algeria is part of

France!”
Sg

But the “harvest” to the
people of Algeria—their con-
sideration for being “a part
of France”—is appalling pov-
erty, disease, and lack of the
most elementary amenities of
life.

Algeria has 400,000 TB suf-
ferers,

Infant mortality has reached
a terrible level Of the 114,-
320 registered deaths in 1950,
56,664 (or almost half) were
children under four years of
age.

In 1953, the child mortality
rate for Europeans in Algeria
was 46 per 1000 births. For
Moslems, it was 161 per 1000
births.

They remember General Hans’

MOSCOW
HE spectacle of General

Hans Speidel in NATO uni-
form has evoked universal dis-
gust, but nowhere more than
in the Soviet Union, where
Speidel is known as one of
those who planned the des-
truction of large areas of the
country and the murder of
millions of its peaceful citi-
zens.

After participating in the
rape of France, Speidel was
appointed as chief of staff of
the Nazi Fifth Army on the
Eastern Front and participat-
ed in the preparation of plans
for Hitler’s advance in the
summer of 1942. -

Then, as a general staff of-
ficer in charge of special mis-
sions, he directed the opera-
tions of the Italian Eighth
Army at Stalingrad, from

which he fled following the
defeat of Von Paulus, aban-
doning his Italian allies,

HANS SPEIDEL

All children of European
origin go to school. But 1,-
750,000 Moslem children (nine
out of ten) run the streets
for want of schools and teach-
ers.

What teaching there is, is
in the “official” language,
French.

Yet, against all this sordid
picture the French govern-
ment would have us believe
that the “unrest” is due mere-
ly to the wiles of some “agi-
tators.” .

Over the last 12 months,
the French government has
Sent more than 200,000 troops
and special police, armed with
modern weapons, to Algeria.

As the Algerian Communist
party stated in its election pro-
gram of April 1955:

“, .. Algerians, Moslem and
Europeans, wish to live in a

From then on, in 1943 and
1944, Speidel played a leading
part in carrying out Hitler’s
scorched earth policy, burn-
ing and destroying the towns
and villages of the Ukraine
during the retreat of the Nazi
troops.

And it was following this
retreat when Hitler’s defeat
Was obvious, that he came for-
ward as the champion of the
policy of a separate peace
with the West while continu-
ing the war in the East.

The Soviet Union has in its
possession dozens of documents
containing personal directives
issued by Speidel for the ar-
rest and execution of hos-
tages both in France and in
the Soviet Union, as well as
documents in which Speidel
reported with Prussian pre-
cision to his Fuehrer on ar-
rests and executions,

Here are some extracts from
his reports while in France in
February 1942,

February 3 — ‘Six shot, 100
sent to concentration camps;
February 4—25 shot and nu-
merous arrests made in Rou-
en; February 14—Orders given
for all adult males who are
proprieters or waiters in
Cafes in Brest to be arrested
and sent to concentration
camps.

February 21—15 men shot,
mass arrests in Tours. Orders
given for arrest and deporta-
lion to concentration camps
of 1,000 Communists,

There are also other docu-
ments containing reports of
Speidel’s subordinates, with
remarks in his own handwrit-
ing demanding even more
brutal methods and more exe-
cutions.

But it. is not only in docu-
ments that Speidel’s war
crimes appear. Too many or-
dinary Soviet citizens know
all too well from personal ex-

This is the governor’s palace in Algiers

country which is their com-
mon inheritance.

“They wish to free them-
helves from the domination
of the big colonial companies.
... They wish to manage their
own affairs.”

The French Communist par-

perience his true nature.

Take the town of Voronezh,
a town with a population now
of 400,000 and which lies about
300 miles south of Moscow
and which was devastated by
Speidel and his Nazi troops.

The announcement of Spei-
del’s appointment as comman-
der-in-chief of NATO forces
in Central Europe almost co-
incided with the 14th anniver-
sary of the liberation of Vor-
onezh from the Nazis — its
liberation from Speidel, who
is known by its citizens as
“The Hangman of Voronezh.”

Shocked at the appointment
a group of Voronezh citizens
who participated in the de-
fence of the city, wrote a let-
ter to the Soviet press - pro-
testing in the strongest terms.

They told how the Nazi
troops attacked their town on
a Sunday and the first bombs
fell on a rally of schoolchil-
dren that was being held in
one of the city’s parks. Bitter
fighting continued in the city
for months until it was liber-
ated at the end of January
1943.

But before the Nazis left,
they destroyed everything
they could, hanging and shoot-
ing people on the streets, like
the 19-year-old girl Ira Plok-
hikh who was hanged,

“There were many such gal-
lows in the streets of Voron-
ezh and in the villages of our
region, Speidel’s soldiers fled
to the West leaving behind
butchered bodies and burning
buildings.

“Speidel’s troops destroyed
the beautiful buildings, the
historic monuments, the uni-
versity and many outstanding
pieces of architecture. They
looted the university library
and the museums of Voronezh
and maybe many of these
looted antiques now grace the
house of Speidel, the new
NATO commander.”

ty also demands real indepen-
dence for the Algerian people. |

The movement within Al-
geria grows in breadth and
power. It is winning the ris-
ing support of friends and al-
lies throughout the world.

Speidel

Nazi war correspondent, Gus-
tav Stebe, wrote of Voronezh -
in 1942:

“There is nothing of value
left in the city and it will take
scores of years to restore it
and for life to begin again.”
But the people of Voronezh
proved this fascist writer
wrong, for the city has been
rebuilt more beautiful than
it was before.

“We appeal to the veterans
who defended France against
the Nazi troops.

“We appeal to the U.S. sol-
diers we met on the Elbe.

“We appeal to all who value
peace and who fought against
fascism,

“Will you allow this Nazi
hangman who received orders
from Hitler to be your com-
mander?” the writers con-
clude.

“It is difficult to believe,”
said the Soviet youth paper
Komsomolskaya Pravda, “that
this S. S, killer, on whose or-
ders hundreds of peaceful So-
viet and\French citizens were
shot, will now command Bri-
tish, French, Dutch and Bel-
gian soldiers.”

The Soviet Army newspap-
er Red Star warned:

“The appointment of this
man means that a further
step has been taken in the pre-
paration of war against the
Soviet Union, Poland, Czecho-
slovakia and other Socialist
countries, a war in which the
new Wehrmacht, - equipped
with atomic weapons, is destin-
ed to be the main striking
force,”

These protests, should not
be taken to mean that the So-
viet people are afraid of Gen-
eral Speidel and his ilk,-or of
the U.S. generals in the Penta-
gon who have ordered. Spei-
del’s appointment.

-As the. veterans of - Voron-
ezh..say- in their -letter:. “Our
country is stronger than ever
and we. will never. allow the
Speidels to repeat their das-

The writers recall that a stardly deeds on our soil.”
.. FEBRUARY 22, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 10