The British Empire has kept many of these malignant forces in check. Without your restraining hand, many parts of the world are doomed.
I realise that I paint a black picture but I find no cause for optimism with the subject of our discussion. I wish you all the luck in the world.”
Eden left the meeting feeling unusually depressed. None of his colleagues in the British government had put matters quite so clearly or as bluntly as von Altendorf. There was an unpalatable but undeniable truth in the German’s analysis, but it would be resisted by many, including Churchill who regarded the Empire as both a right and a duty for Britain.
‘This could get messy,’ he thought to himself.
Charles de Gaulle now embarked on another worldwide tour of French colonies. By the end of it he had accomplished all of the immediate French government objectives, and as result, would return to France as the man most hated and reviled by the French people, since Adolf Hitler. He was seen as the man who singlehandedly was trying to destroy the glorious French Empire.
In Morocco he had quickly reached an amicable agreement with its popular and able king, Mohammed V. The country would become self-governing before the end of the year. Over the next three years Moroccan citizens would be trained to replace French officials and administrators. The Moroccan king was enthusiastic about remaining part of a Francophone group of nations. Preferential trade would continue between the two countries. Communist parties would not be tolerated.
Tunisia was nominally already independent, being officially classed as a protectorate of France. It’s designated, but up to now powerless, Head of State, the Bey, Muhammad VII, wasted no time in accepting a similar deal to Morocco.
These were two relatively simple and easy negotiations for de Gaulle. Algeria was always going to be the difficult one because of the large number of French settlers who had made their homes there over the past one hundred years.
The French colonists dominated the government in Algeria and consistently block or delayed all attempts at reform. As a result, opposition from the Muslim majority population had gradually increased in the 1920s and 1930s. The previous year, political and legal equality for Muslims had been demanded by Algerian politicians, one of whom, Ferhat Abbas, was now in prison for his political activities.
Abbas had served at one time in the French army and was originally pro-French in outlook. His father was a civil administrator and holder of the Legion of Honour, France’s highest award for military or civil merit. On the outbreak of the European War in 1939, Abbas had volunteered to re-join the French Army. Even though he was now anti-colonial, he was still not anti-French.
De Gaulle had him released from prison. They entered into four days of intensive negotiations. In view of the animosity that had developed over the years between the settlers and the indigenous population, the French needed cast iron guarantees of fair treatment for the colonists during any independence transition. Satisfactory agreement was reached on all the major points late on the fourth day.
De Gaulle flew back to Paris. He deemed it wise to have the three North Africa treaties ratified by the French government before he undertook any further travelling.
As Darlan had foreseen, when the independence plan was announced there were demonstrations throughout the country, mostly directed at the now hated de Gaulle. Fortunately, in the now stable and prosperous France, the public were generally less volatile and more contented than in earlier years. The number and size of incidents reported around the country were not as serious as he had expected, and many prominent intellectuals had strongly expressed their support for independence for the colonies. The astute Darlan had gambled on this being the case.
It was very different in Algeria. The Pied-noirs, as the French settlers were known, expressed their anger by blockading government buildings, rioting and demonstrations. Even a few French officials were kidnapped. There were some killings. De Gaulle had previously warned the Governor-General of Algeria to be prepared for unrest. There was no immediate retaliation by the police, who were ordered to let tempers cool before investigating incidents of lawlessness. The army refused to become involved. Too many of its personnel sympathised with the settlers.
De Gaulle, now the de facto Governor of all French Colonies in the empire, quietly started replacing French and other officials in the Algerian administration who were openly hostile to Algerian independence. He had three years to complete the transformation. He was sanguine about it. Time would heal the pain.
Syria had been controlled by France since the Great War. In 1936 a political accommodation of sorts had been reached with its inhabitants, and the Republic of Syria had been established with its own President. However, the insecure governments of France that had been in power in the years immediately before the European War, had never ratified this arrangement. France had continued to interfere in Syrian affairs. The result had been the resignation of the Algerian President in 1939, and a period of uncertainty ever since.
The ex-President remained mistrustful of France’s intentions. It took all of de Gaulle’s powers of persuasion to convince him that things had changed. A deal was hammered out on the same basis as the other North African colonies.
Lebanon had been easier. It was another territory that had been mandated to France by the League of Nations after the Great War. It already had a measure of independence and France had formed the Lebanese Republic in 1926.
De Gaulle called for immediate elections. He had no real short term concerns about Lebanon. The country was stable and prosperous. Its capital, Beirut, was a city of great elegance and an established regional centre for finance and trade. Unusually, it’s multi-religion peoples worked together in a unique mix of power sharing between the different communities. He left them to get on with it. He was amazed that their form of government actually worked.
He was by no means sure that such inter-religion co-operation would last.
The Minister for Colonies was satisfied with the progress he had made so far. Now for Africa!
The Governing Council had met early that day. At midday they were all being transported to Templehof Airport outside Berlin, to witness the arrival of the Luftwaffe’s first operational jet fighter squadron.
In line with what had become tradition, the Foreign Affairs Minister opened the meeting. He gave the council details of France’s new de-colonisation policy. It was expected to cause some unrest over the next two or three years, and would probably also have a negative impact on France’s finances and trade in the short term, but it was a shrewd strategy and the longer term outlook was expected to be positive. The French Economics Minister, no doubt, was prepared for this.
Von Altendorf mentioned that Britain might also be questioning the role of parts of its empire. He advised that he would also discuss with the Dutch government the matter of their empire. Germany had no wish to interfere in any way, but it would be remiss of them not to inform their ally of developments.
Albert Speer gave a short but concise summary of the balance of Soviet trade. This, together with China, accounted for fifty percent of Germany’s exports. In the meantime trade with other countries also continued to expand. Overall the balance of trade continued to be in Germany’s favour. Although ship building capacity had been increased, it was again working at full stretch. China was now talking about building up its navy and wanted Germany to build the warships. This would mean creating even more capacity.