Camus opposed both F.L.N. violence and independence, proposing a federated French Commonwealth instead.

Evidence

Condemning even-handedly the atrocities committed by both sides, Camus (in what was a thinly-veiled criticism of the more violently militant supporters of the F.L.N.) had attacked “a section of our opinion” which “thinks obscurely that the Arabs have acquired the right somehow to slit throats and to mutilate”. … Still declaring himself fundamentally opposed to any policy of independence leading to “the eviction of 1,200,000 Europeans from Algeria”, by the beginning of 1958 he had come out in favour of a federalist solution, as recently propounded by a liberal professor of law at Algiers University, Marc Lauriol. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 737

Categorization

  • QUESTION: The 1,200,000 pieds noirs figure and the Lauriol proportionality scheme might warrant cross-checking against other accounts of French settler demography.