ALGERIA: Floating Catch

Trailed by two French submarines, discreetly watched by cruising French aircraft, the rusty white 400-tonner with the chipped smokestack never had a chance. As she zigzagged into Algerian waters last week a French destroyer escort hove in sight, ordered her to heave to. Said the French commander, peeping under the hatches: “A floating arsenal.” When the old vessel’s contraband cargo was laid out on the quay at Mers-el-Kebir, the French army found sufficient mortars, machine guns, rifles and pistols to equip 3,000 guerrillas.

More important to the French than the arrest of the arms runners was the identification of the arms suppliers. The name of the ship was the Athos, a former Canadian minesweeper under Sudanese registry. Her captain produced two passports, one Greek, the other Costa Rican. Seven out of her crew of ten were unregistered and looked as if they might be Algerians. After lengthy interrogation of captain and crew, the French triumphantly announced that the Athos had been loaded in Alexandria by uniformed Egyptian soldiers. The French government asked the Egyptian ambassador for an explanation.

The capture of the Athos came at a propitious moment for Premier Guy Mollet’s government, which is facing intense criticism for its policy in Algeria. Claiming that his tough tactics had beaten the rebels and put them on the run, Algerian Minister Robert Lacoste last week told the National Assembly: “Without the aid of arms that they get from across the frontiers of the east and west, or by sea, their situation would be tragic.” Lacoste hinted at what the guerrillas may have planned to do with the Athos arms: “The rebels would be happy if they could seize the city [of Algiers] for 24 hours. Then they could say the French are no longer masters in Algeria.”

Now, said Lacoste, the rebels must “win by political intrigue and international maneuvers what they could not gain by military action.”

At week’s end, Egypt admitted that the Athos had indeed sailed from Alexandria harbor a fortnight earlier, but denied supplying the arms because “the international situation does not permit Egypt to deprive itself of modern armaments.” The French, feeling at last that they now had a case against Nasser, were considering taking the Athos case to the U.N. Security Council.