On the way de Gaulle had had an illuminating private conversation with a remarkable Muslim, Mahdi Belhaddad, a veteran who had lost his right arm at Cassino, currently sub-prefect of a one-horse town on the fringes of the Aurès, the only Muslim to hold such a post. Taking Belhaddad aside, the President had asked him for his views on the exposé of the situation that the local military had just given. Belhaddad began by complaining of the limitations imposed upon his own freedom of action, and at the fact that—after all the administrative reforms of the past years—there was still no other Muslim sub-prefect apart from himself, and that there was no Muslim in Delouvrier’s cabinet. He then offered the opinion that no genuine pacification could be achieved without a cease-fire.

XREF: Connects to French colonial administration in Algeria and the limited Muslim representation despite nominal reforms.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 1033