Around Mother Africa Long Walk Original Manuscript (Image #476)

army he lectured at the London School of Economics and he was well versed in the problems of their revolution. A controversial question was the refusal of the Algerian CP to dissolve as most political parties in the country did, and allow its members to join the FNL as individuals. The Algerians pointed out that although individual members of the CP took part in the war, some even becoming heroes the existence of the CP as an independent party became a source of friction throughout the revolution and created a dual autority when a central political organ directing the whole struggle had become crucial. We were unable to speak to any members of the Algerian CP on this question and get their point of view; we did not persue it any further. A few days after our return from Oujda Ben Bella, who was to become the first Prime Minister of an independent Algeria, was received by King Hassan and a crowd of about 300,000 people. We were introduced to him and later accompanied him back to Oujda where the army staged the parade that we have already described. Here I met both Colonel Boummediene, then Commander in Chief of the whole Algerian army, and Colonal Sliman (check spelling), the Commander in Chief on the Moroccan side and we conversed through the aid of interpreters. On our return by train to Rabat I tried to talk English of course to a well known statesman without an interpreter and he politely told me: "Me, English, no talk". He did far better than me because I understood him quite well. The favourable response we got from Dr. Khatib made it necessary for Robbie to fly to London.