Word: morocco
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France is slowly but steadily losing her grip on her North African empire. Morocco has been in turmoil for a year. Until recently, nearby Tunisia was relatively quiet, but last spring nationalists began stirring in Tunisia. The nationalists were dissatisfied with the limited "reforms" offered by Resident General Pierre Voizard; they were enraged by the moving of exiled Habib Bourguiba, the anti-Communist leader of Tunisia's most powerful political group, the Neo-Destour
World War II: Volunteered for combat duty as an air-force lieutenant (navigator), fled France after the Nazi victory, was caught in Morocco and sentenced by Vichy to six years in prison for "dese-tion," but made a hacksaw-and-bedsheet escape to the underground and then to the De Gaulle forces in England. Made bombing raids over France and Germany...
Finally the pressure of alarmed French residents in Morocco and their friends in France became so great that Premier La-niel made his move. Last week, after considering a number of generals, diplomats, politicians and hacks, the government picked a civilian, Career Diplomat Francis Lacoste, 48, to be the eleventh Resident General since Morocco became a French protectorate...
Hope for a Civilian. Francis Lacoste is no stranger to Morocco. In 1947 he was the Quai d'Orsay's delegate to Marshal Alphonse Juin's Moroccan Residency. Although he was no policymaker, he became an expert on Moroccan peasant problems and maintained friendly relations with the now-deposed Ben Youssef. A graduate of the University of Paris' School of Political Science, he served diplomatic apprenticeships in Belgrade and Peking, returned to France during World War II, fought in the resistance, won a Croix de Guerre. Since the war he has had tours in Washington...
...Morocco's nationalists, many of whom would rather negotiate than fight, were heartened by Diplomat Lacoste's appointment. Said one: "Lacoste has always showed himself to be understanding. Perhaps we can take up the dialogue with him again." But Le Monde expressed the prevailing mood' of Paris: "Whatever his qualities, the simple change of an individual cannot, in a situation so serious, have a magic effect. The results will depend on the policy adopted." For the momentj Paris had no policy to offer...