ABSTRACT
Algiers nestles against a rocky promontory which offers it shelter from the biting west winds in the same peculiar fashion as all the other North African ports on the Mediterranean. The administrative authorities and representative organs established under French control collapsed in the course of the rebellion, either because of the withdrawal of the Moslem representatives or because of the upheaval of war. Wartime Algeria could best be described as an immense mass of silent people. At one end of the spectrum, and visible, were the independence fighters, at the other, collaborators with the French. The Moslem officials could be divided into two groups: the Beni-Oui-Oui, the tools of France, accustomed to say ‘yes’ to everything, and those who worked with the French out of conviction that it was the best way of looking after the interests of their people. Although it went a completely different way this last group was not irrevocably separated from the nationalists striving for independence.
