On Safari

Red China supplied Algeria's rebels with arms and money in their fight against the French, and was the first Communist nation to recognize Algerian independence. So the least that Peking's Premier Chou En-lai expected in Algiers last week was a well-organized demonstration of brotherly love. Instead, he got a chaotic reception that at times resembled a brotherly brushoff.

The tone was obvious as soon as Chou stepped off his chartered KLM Electra amidst a pelting hailstorm. Algerian Premier Ahmed Ben Bella usually gives important visitors an affectionate buss on both cheeks. Not this time. All Chou got was a simple handshake and a carefully prepared speech that extolled, of all things, the Russian propaganda line of peaceful coexistence. Just before the motorcade drove into town, a little truck raced madly ahead, pausing momentarily along the route while men frantically plastered posters of Chou on walls and billboards. Adding to the general atmosphere of carelessness were a few streamers covered with mis spelled Chinese characters. Even scattered shouts of "Chou" from the sparse crowds got a laugh, since the name means "cabbage" in French.

Ben Bella held four political discussions with Chou during his week-long visit. High on the agenda was Peking's desire for another Bandung-type conference of Asian and African nations; the Red Chinese see such a meeting as a device to draw fence-sitting countries closer to their own camp in world affairs. At a press conference in Algiers, Chou declared that Ben Bella was in favor of another "Bandung," though it was not entirely clear just how enthusiastic Ben Bella felt on the subject. But when Chou lashed out at "U.S. imperialism" at a closed meeting of Algerian leaders, Ben Bella led the applause. The Sino-Soviet feud was a more tricky problem in diplomacy. Determined to stay neutral, Ben Bella had just dispatched a high-level aid mission to Russia, Red China's archrival. Communist China's aid to Algeria consists of a $50 million loan, which may be spent on building the first highway across the Sahara to left-leaning Mali. Snickered a Soviet diplomat in Algiers: "I hope they build it during the summer."

Winding up his visit, the Chinese Communist leader headed for another mixed greeting from Morocco's King Hassan, who maintains diplomatic relations with Peking but is otherwise pro-Western. Chou's major success so far on his tour of North Africa was word that Tunisia, which has no diplomatic ties with either the Communists or the Chinese Nationalists, had decided to give diplomatic recognition to Peking. This week Chou interrupts his safari with a side trip to Albania. In Tirana, Red China's only ideological ally outside Asia, he will get that rare feeling of being a completely welcome guest.

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