In Algiers Delouvrier's secretary-general and closest collaborator, André Jacomet, resigned in a manner Delouvrier construed as pulling the rug out from underneath him. "I consider it regrettable", said Jacomet, "that, before any cease-fire, the G.P.R.A. should receive satisfaction on its principal war aim — the Republic of Algeria". With other resignations in the wind, it looked to Delouvrier as if the whole structure of the Délégation-Général was tottering. At the Armistice Day ceremony of 11 November he found himself surrounded by a ragingly angry crowd at the monument aux morts. His car was spat upon, and a young woman thrusting her face forward shouted: "Delouvrier — Assassin!" It was too much. Never before had he been called this. Delouvrier was now at the end of his resources, exhausted after twenty-four thankless months in a hopeless task. To his cabinet he admitted: "This time I no longer feel I am master of the situation."

SEED: The crumbling of a colonial administrator's inner circle over a war aim could anchor an essay on how leaks of political concessions destabilize bureaucracies.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 1288