Speakers Fear Algerian Explosion: Call for Economic, Social Reforms

Overpopulation, underdevelopment and undereducation are the main problems facing Algeria at this time, Jo Saxe and Willard C. Mathias, members of the newly-established Center of International Studies, stated in a well-attended forum at Kirkland House last night.

The discussion on present-day French-Algerian relations centered on the recent French referendum and the implications of the Gaullist victory for the future of Algeria. Saxe and Mathias agreed that overpopulation was the most serious of the French satellite's problems.

The people have been unable to adjust culturally to the coming of Western technology and hygiene, resulting in burgeoning population without a corresponding rise in national productivity, the speakers agreed. Unless these problems were solved, they asserted, an explosion of some sort was inevitable.

Saxe also noted that the French public seemed unable to decide between the alternatives of integration or independence for Algeria and preferred to leave the matter to DeGaulle.