Word: catroux
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Promised independence after the Ottoman Empire collapsed in 1918, Syria was mandated to France, which claimed an "interest" in the area dating from the Crusader kingdoms founded there by Prankish knights in the 11th century. In May 1941 Gaullist General Georges Catroux drove out Vichyite administrators and proclaimed Syria's independence. By 1944 France had shifted most powers to the Syrians, and when the last troops withdrew in April 1946 Syria was completely independent-France's first postwar loss of empire...
...honking their horns, Mollet admitted shakily to newsmen: "I saw in their faces the look of total miscomprehension and hatred." His hands trembled, and his voice was little more than a whisper. His first retreat was to accept the resignation of 79-year-old General Georges Catroux, whom he had appointed Minister for Algeria (TIME, Feb. 13). Catroux' appointment had been a political blunder in the first place. To Algerian French, Catroux was "the liquidator'' of France's presence in Syria and Lebanon, the man who had presided over the return of Morocco's Sultan...
...Baptiste Biaggi, a Corsican lawyer from Paris, had flown in, a week earlier, with the avowed purpose of whipping up a new French Revolution. "Victory is yours now! Don't drop it!" bellowed Biaggi. "Mollet's surrender was unconditional. Throw out his policy just as you did Catroux...
Swelling Murmurs. Such talk fell like sparks on the tinder-dry tempers of Algeria's million French colons, who want no political equality with Arabs who outnumber them eight to one. For a year they had cold-shouldered Catroux's predecessor, Governor General Jacques Soustelle. But now, by comparison, Soustelle seemed a hero. Some 50,000 Europeans jammed the streets of Algiers to give him and Mme. Soustelle a bewilderingly touching sendoff. The colons were equally noisy in proclaiming their refusal to be governed by General Catroux...
...violence of their mood further unsettled Mollet's new regime. Mollet, though a mild-appearing ex-schoolmaster and party functionary, is a man of courage who escaped the Gestapo's hand in 1943. At the first reports of the angry murmurings against Catroux, Mollet announced steadfastly: "I will accompany General Catroux, and we will ride in the same car." Early this week, as the angry mutterings swelled, Catroux resigned. Mollet went off alone to Algiers, where he was greeted with a shower of rotten tomatoes as he laid a wreath at a monument to war dead...