Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
With U.S. forces in Algeria – (by wireless)
I have been delving further into this strange business of Axis sympathies among the people of French North Africa. It is very involved.
The population was all mixed – Arabs, Jews, Spanish and French. And there didn’t seem to be much national loyalty. It looked as if the people, being without any deep love of the country, favored whichever side appeared more likely to feather their nest.
Outside the big cities, Algeria hadn’t fared badly under the Germans. But the cities had been actually starving, because the Germans bought produce direct from the farms, and the cities couldn’t get it.
America has already contributed shiploads of food to the Algerian people, but for some reason little of it showed up in the public markets. City housewives find the stalls bare as usual, and they mutter about “les Américains.”
The Germans paid high prices to the farmers for their crops, and paid in French money. They didn’t levy the terrific indemnities here that they did in France. Hence the farm population actually prospered, and had almost nothing to kick about.
Now this year, Algeria has the biggest orange crop since the war started. In distant sections, oranges were actually rotting on the trees for lack of transportation. The farmers blame the Americans for this, and I suppose with some justice. True, we have already arranged to ship vast cargoes of oranges to England in returning convoys, but we can’t spare enough transportation to get the whole crop to the docks.
Buying of crop would help
As far as I can see, the only way to get the Arab, French, and Spanish farmers on our side would be to buy the whole orange crop, even at the high prices the Germans paid.
When the Germans took control, they demobilized the French North African Army. That suited the people fine. They didn’t want to fight anyway. But now the army is mobilized again, and people are saying:
Under the Germans, we didn’t have to fight. Under the Americans, our leaders make us go into the army again.
They are passive about it, but many of them are not happy. There was a deep fascist tinge among some of the officers of the regular army. I’ve tried to find out the reason. As far as I could learn, it was mostly a seeking for an ordered world to live in. The people and the army alike were disillusioned and shattered by the foul mess into which Paris had fallen – the mess that resulted in catastrophe to France. They were, and are, bitter against the politicians and the general slovenliness in high places. They wanted no more of it. They wanted things to run smoothly. They wanted security – and they visualized it as guaranteed by the methodical rule of the Axis.
The German propaganda here has been expert. The people have been convinced that Germany will win. Lacking any great nationalistic feeling, the people jumped onto whatever seems to be the leading bandwagon, and they think it’s Germany. Propaganda has also made them think America is very weak. Literally, they believe we don’t have enough steel to run our factories or enough oil for our motors.
Americans misinterpreted
German propaganda has drilled into them the glories of the New Order. These people believe that life for them under German control would be milk and honey, perpetual security and prosperity. They really believe it. Also, our troops have made a poor impression, in contrast to the few Germans they’ve seen. We admittedly are not rigid-minded people. Our Army doesn’t have the strict and snappy discipline of the Germans. Our boys sing in the streets, unbutton their shirt collars, laugh and shout, and forget to salute. A lot of Algerians misinterpret this as inefficiency. They think such a carefree army can’t possibly whip the grim Germans.
Most of the minor peoples of the world expect discipline. They admire strict rulers because to them strictness is synonymous with strength. The Algerians couldn’t conceive of the fact that our strength lies in our freedom.
Out of it all I gather a new respect for Americans, sloppy though we may be. They may call us Uncle Shylock, but I know of no country on earth that actually is less grabby. In all my traveling both before and during the war, I have been revolted by the nasty, shriveled greediness of soul that inhabits so much of the world. The more I see of the Americans and the British, the most I like us. And although Germany is our bitter enemy, at least the Germans have the character to be wholly loyal to their own country.
Once more, I want to say that this stratum about which I am writing is not a majority of the people of North Africa. Much of the population is just as fervent for Allied victory as we are. But there is this Axis tinge, and I wanted to try to explain why it existed. Personally, I don’t feel that it can do us any grave harm.
