ABSTRACT
Britain won the wars in Malaya and Kenya, whilst France lost in Vietnam and Algeria; obviously it would be fairer to compare Kenya with Cameroon. Be that as it may, however, to speak of a failure of French decolonization, as is sometimes the fashion not only in Britain and the United States would be a precipitate and unjust judgement. Vietnam became the touchstone of the Union Francaise. ‘The Vietnamese reserved the right to nationalize French businesses in their country; France had after all just nationalized its own mines, electricity, gas, banks, and insurance. On 20 September 1947 France proclaimed a statute for Algeria against the protests of the Movement pour le Triomphe des Libertes Democratiques as well as of the Union Democratique du Manifeste Algerien, whose senators relinquished their seats. This statute left the colonial-type administration, which predominantly served the interests of the European minority.
