President de Gaulle went to bed last night well satisfied with the results of the referendum on Algeria and remarking that the "good sense" of the people had prevailed. M. Debré, the French Prime Minister, early today described the referendum as a success for General de Gaulle and for France. He declared:
"The reply of the voters is clear and striking. . . . What a feeling of rallying, of unity and strength! The nation has surmounted its divisions and has expressed its deep confidence."
Final results for 26,747,953 registered voters in France showed an absolute majority of them was in favour of de Gaulle and his Algerian policy. The figures were: "Yes" 15,198,714 (75.25%), "No" 4,996, 507 (24.75%).
And early today M Jean Morin, French Delegate-General in Algeria, announced that Algeria had voted "Yes." After 1,269,123 votes—more than a third of those cast—had been counted, there were 925,837 "Yes" votes (72.92 per cent) to 305,560 "Noes". An unofficial total of about forty dead—23 of them yesterday—was reported in incidents throughout Algeria over the three days of voting—a not unusual figure even when no polling is in progress.
Vote relieves pressure of ex-generals on President
Paris, January 8.
The results of the voting, as known at midnight, showed, as was natural, a reduction in the broad support that had been enjoyed by General de Gaulle in September 1958, but a less serious reduction than had been expected in many quarters.
They showed above all, that the exponents of the "French Algeria" thesis had failed to secure support in any way proportionate to their claim to represent the true French national line. The result of the vote is therefore a freeing both of the President himself and of public opinion from certain types of pressure, especially from that of retired generals. Four of the leading political commentators of the Paris press, discussing the result of the vote on French television, insisted above all on the changed nature of the support enjoyed by the President. It was no longer a blank cheque and was no longer ambiguous, as it had been two years ago. It was a mandate to settle the Algerian problem and to settle it quickly.
The Government has therefore been empowered to take three important steps: 1, to organise at an indeterminate date the vote of the Algerians themselves on their country's future; 2, to draw conclusions from that vote; and 3, to set up in the meanwhile something like an Algerian State on a provisional basis.