Word: sultanate
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...difficulties occurred to them. It would not do to kidnap His Majesty the Sultan. And the whole thing should be cleared with somebody in Paris. The somebody in Paris turned out to be hawk-nosed Socialist Max Lejeune, Secretary of State for the armed forces and close friend of Algeria's tough Minister Resident Lacoste, opponent of a liberal line in Algeria. Lejeune cautiously hinted of the operation to Premier Mollet, who had promised the Sultan and Bourguiba that the rebels would enjoy immunity. Mollet snapped: "Definitely...
...Trick. Notwithstanding, Lejeune gave the go-ahead to the intelligence officers. He apparently counted on the French Cabinet's current impatience with the Sultan. After all, when the Sultan's 28-year-old son had discussed with Mollet the possibility of talking to the Algerian rebels, Mollet had agreed as long as it was done unspectacularly. Instead the Sultan had welcomed the rebel leaders to his palace, had been photographed with them and had issued a joint communique...
...Sultan's indiscretion played right into the plotters' hands. The Sultan's French advisers persuaded him that the French, already miffed, would be even more hurt if the rebels flew with him to Tunis in his private Super-Constellation. The Sultan saw the point. At the airport he explained his delicate problem to the rebel leaders, then took off without them...
...French Pilot Gaston Grellier, 40, headed toward a non-French refueling stop, at Majorca in Spain's Balearic Islands, to avoid putting down in Algeria. In the air the first directive crackled from Algeria: "Refuel at Palma and then proceed to Algiers." Since French delicacy dictated that the Sultan should be among the first to hear that his hospitality was being violated, Pilot Grellier was also told to radio his new destination back to Rabat. Seeing the report, the Moroccan Minister of Works cried, "This is pure piracy," and ordered instructions sent to Pilot Grellier to wait at Majorca...
...Tunis an ashen-faced Sultan heard the whispered news after parading with Bourguiba to the cheers of 370,000 Tunisians. In Paris Guy Mollet gasped: "It's crazy. I don't believe it." At a midnight conference Mollet accepted the accomplished fact, and the immediate political advantage it gave him. Next morning all Parisian newspapers except the Communist L'H'umanite cheered the French kidnaping. Mollet, declining to surrender rebels "already condemned by French justice,"* won a massive 330-140 vote of confidence. Only ex-Premier Pierre Mendés-France asked whether "those who organized...