pany Limited. AROUND BOMBAY MARKETS. Equities Continue to Drift. —D P
Sharma. FERHAT Abbas and the FLN are not the only ones to be disappointed.
THIRTEENTH YEAR OF PUBLICATION
January 7,
1961
Volume X l l l - N o . 1
EDITORIALS Vetoed Vote in France
1
A l l e r g y to Economic T h e o r y
2
Tagore Centenary in Bombay WEEKLY NOTES Internal M i g r a t i o n of Populat i o n — N o r t h - S o u t h Metre Gauge L i n k e d — Leyland-Standard Merger-—Steel Prospects
3
OUR DELHI LETTER Scramble for Fertilisers 4
LETTER FROM; AMERICA Ten " Y o u n g " M e n of Tact and Talent
7
LETTER FROM JAPAN
9
Trek to the Cities 11
LETTER FROM SOUTH Cooperative
Farming
Seminar 13
LETTER FROM PUNJAB Beas-Sutlej
Power Complex
BOOK REVIEW
15
How M u c h Social M o b i l i t y ? —Surindra Suri
17
SPECIAL ARTICLES Reserve Bank's Role in Finance —R M A r u n a c h a l a m
Rural 19
Economic Conference — R K Hazari
25
Conference of L a b o u r Economists 29 — S D Punekar NEW ISSUE The Madras A l u m i n i u m pany L i m i t e d
Com33
AROUND BOMBAY MARKETS Equities Continue to D r i f t — D P Sharma THE
ECONOMIC
WEEKLY
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37
P r i c e 5 0 N a y e Paise
Vetoed Vote in France F E R H A T Abbas and the F L N are not the only ones to be disappointed w i t h the recent speeches of President de Gaulle on the subject of A l g e r i a ; the disappointment is f a i r l y general w i t h i n and w i t h o u t A l g e r i a and France. It had been w i d e l y expected that the President's rather eventful visit to Algiers a few weeks ago w o u l d have a chastening effect on his t h i n k i n g , and that at least the one point on w h i c h this w o u l d have made h i m more realistic than before w o u l d be the absolute need to recognise the indispensability of negotiating directly w i t h the F L N as an essential party in a new A l g e r i a n Government. The speeches have strangely belied this expectation. The President has been t a l k i n g as if the F L N never existed. Does he really believe that it w i l l be possible to set up his semi-autonomous Government in A l g i e r s w i t h o u t in any way associating the nationalist rebels w i t h it? The natural and automatic effect of this curious omission in his speeches has been to make Mr Ferhat Abbas f r a n k l y contemptuous of the referendum w h i c h has already begun this week. He has called upon his followers, and indeed to the A l g e r i a n M u s l i m s generally, to boycott it completely and to have n o t h i n g to do w i t h it in any way. C e r t a i n l y the referendum is a queer experiment f r o m the point of the nationalists. One of the two points on w h i c h it seeks France's "massive and f o r t h r i g h t " approval for the President's A l g e r i a n policy is unnecessary; the other is unworkable. The superfluous point is the one that asks the country to endorse "the p r i n c i p l e of self-determination" for A l g e r i a —a strange endorsement to ask for a Government w h i c h has already shown in practice in many parts of A f r i c a that it represents a people who recognise the self-determination p r i n c i p l e for erstwhile colonies. Moreover, in the case of A l g e r i a , it is not so much the p r i n c i p l e of self-determination as its application that presents the greatest difficulties. The second question in the referendum calls for the endorsement of President de Gaulle's plan to establish provisional institutions in A l g e r i a w h i c h would eventually f l o w e r into an "association" w i t h France, g i v i n g the Algerians themselves nothing more substantial than local autonomy, w i t h such things as defence, finance, foreign policy and education left in the charge of Paris. It is almost incredible that de Gaulle should ask his people to give h i m a specific mandate to apply a policy in A l g e r i a w h i c h the other less m i l i t a n t French colonies in A f r i c a have in the past refused to accept. The G a u l l i s i conception of A l g e r i a n autonomy might have worked if the nationalist sentiment there was w h o l l y l a c k i n g ; but in circumstances where this sentiment is powerfully embodied in the F L N . the entire manoeuvre must seem a futile one. The essential point in this whole tangle is that de Gaulle must recognise without much further delay ( f o r the A l g e r i a n debacle is losing France friends everywhere) that there is no alternative to direct negotiations w i t h the F L N . He s i m p l y must talk to them and conic to an understanding w i t h their leader. Ferhat Abbas, The M e l u n attempt needs to be made again. T h i s is not to suggest that the French President does not see this need; but his insistence that the rebel negotiators must "agree to leave the knives in the c l o a k r o o m " will need modification.
