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University Daily Kansan Thursday. Oct. 4, 1962
Algeria Future Seems Clouded
By Joseph W. Grigg United Press International
PARIS—The new nation of Algeria is facing up to the reality of independence with 75 per cent of its Moslem workers out of a job and the country's economy almost at a standstill.
The nationalist leaders who headed the fight against the French for more than seven years had nursed ideas that independence automatically would confer on Algeria the role of dominant power in North Africa.
Instead, they have found that unless they can put their own house in order, Algeria faces disaster as grim as that which hit the Congo.
ALGERIA'S present plight can be traced to two body blows which struck it even as the nation celebrated its independence from 122 years of French rule.
The first was a wide-open split between the nationalist leaders, who hitherto had maintained a solid front of unity to the outside world. The second was the mass flight of more than 600,000 of the one million Europeans in Algeria in less than three months.
The leadership struggle drove the nation more than once to the brink of civil war. Ahmed Ben Bella, the left-leaning strong man who had the backing of most of the army, came out on top of the pile. But only after a three-months-long fight which
brought the nation's economy and political life to a dead stop.
IT WAS THE chaotic economic and political conditions which stemmed from the leadership battle that were largely responsible for the mass flight of Europeans.
The French government had figured on about 70,000 emigrating to France each year over a five-year period.
Instead, the human torrent of 600,000 which poured across the Mediterranean into France in three months created a critical problem for the French and a major disaster for Algeria.
The Europeans held the key to Algeria's economy. More than 60 per cent of all business activity was in their hands. They provided employment and furnished the skilled workers, the civil servants, teachers, doctors, lawyers and engineers who ran the country. Without them Algeria has found its economy cannot function.
Both the French and Algerians have attempted alternatively to cajole and threaten the Europeans into returning, but with little success so far. Businesses remain closed, European-owned stores barred and shuttered with notices that they are "closed for the summer." Millions of Algerians are workless and seeking relief which the nearly empty state coffers cannot provide.
WITH THE departure of the Europeans the shortage of trained personnel is acute. Here is just one example:
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The nationalists are trying to set up an Algerian news agency. But they are unable to find trained newsmen, teleprinter operators, accountants or even secretaries for it.
COLOR and CinemaScopeI
In present-day Algeria a secretary can get twice the salary she would be paid in France.
Under the Evian cease-fire agreement last March, the French promised independent Algeria sweeping economic, financial and technical aid. But they have held off so far until they see whether normal conditions are restored.
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