The army commander overrode the governor’s humane rules via an oral delegation.

Evidence

This was a lapidary and admirable code of conduct that was to become a major bone of contention with the army as the years went by; however, early in Soustelle’s term of office he was virtually short-circuited by “Babar” Cherrière, the military commander already under notice. On 14 May he sent this crucial signal to his subordinate in the Constantine area, General Allard: “I delegate you powers to decide, depending circumstances, employment machine-guns, rockets and bombs, on bands in new rebellion zone. Collective responsibility to be vigorously applied. There will be no written instruction given by the Governor [author’s italics].” — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 357

Categorization

• XREF: Shows how formal humanitarian policy was subverted covertly — a pattern echoing colonial violence elsewhere.
• QUESTION: The ‘no written instruction’ detail raises how oral authorization enabled deniability of atrocities.