The Daily News Letter the North African Situation

Paris.

Trouble is afoot again in the French possessions in North Africa. A wave of discontent, inspired by foreign agitators, native politicians, French anti-Semitic propagandists and other malcontents is nearing the crest. Here too, the Jews will have an opportunity to fulfill their ancient role of being first to bear the brunt.

The recent disorder at Setif, commencing in a brawl between native soldiery and the population on one side, and the police on the other, which culminated in a wild onslaught on the Jewish quarter, was not an isolated incident. Since that time, a number of minor disorders have been reported, not involving the Jews particularly but more than indicative of the temper of the population. The situation in North Africa is rapidly reaching the point where it will constitute a terrific challenge to the French authorities for it is the French rule of the territories which is the ultimate target of all the attacks and all the disorders.

That there is a clearer realization of that in official circles here can be seen by the fact that President Lebrun presided at a ministerial council to discuss the situation and that the council decided that North African affairs should come within the direct province of the Prime Minister.

The authorities are beginning to realize that the disorders in North Africa are not merely manifestations of anti-Semitic feeling despite the careful nurturing anti-Semitism has had there from Nazi propagandists, French Fascists and native nationalist leaders such as Ben Djelloul who relishes the appellation of “Arab Hitler.” The Hitlerist agitators are particularly active in trying to stir up a pan-Islamic movement to the proportions of a holy war with the purpose of keeping France too busy with her colonial possessions to bother with anything else.

For the purposes of these agitators, the Jews fit in admirably. They furnish an excellent target toward which, for the present, to direct Arab feeling. With the present temper of the population as a whole still not worked up to the requisite pitch, these agitators know that it would be foolhardy to attack French rule directly. The French would recognize this challenge to their authority immediately and would take the vigorous steps necessary to crush it.

What the French government must recognize, and what it is beginning to understand, is that the attacks on the Jews in Algeria are the beginning of the open attack on continued French rule. If they are not halted, France will find her authority directly and openly attacked.

M. Daladier, former Premier of France, pointed this out clearly the other day in an article in which he declares that the present religious tension in Morocco, Tunis and Algeria is not due to the unfortunate economic situation and gives rise to considerable danger of taking an anti-French turn. He calls for urgent measures to meet this situation.

Newspaper correspondents report from North Africa that photographs of Hitler are to be seen everywhere in Algeria, that Moslems are using the “Heil Hitler” greeting and that nationalist leaders are under the Nazi leader’s spiritual domination. Ben Djelloul, who was one of the leaders of the bloody Constantine riots, receives Hitler salutes from his devoted followers and is greeted with cries of “Heil Hitler and Ben Djelloul!” In North Africa, it is evident, German propagandists are pursuing the same tactics they employ in every country which has a Nazi movement.

Nazi activities in French North Africa were clearly described in a letter in Le Temps, influential Paris daily, recently, which attracted wide comment. Written by Dr. Arnold Netter, a relative of the late Charles Netter, founder of the Alliance Israelite Universelle, the letter reported Nazi activities and pointed out that “even before the National Socialists came into power, the German government counted on the anti-French movement among the Algerian natives to compel us to hold our 19th Corps on the other side of the Mediterranean.”

Dr. Netter also warned that “if we leave unprotected the Jews who have embraced French nationality for the past sixty-four years and who have played an important role in the defense of our country during the World War, the enmity (toward the Jews) would be extended also against the French inhabitants and against all other inhabitants of French nationality.”