issue of the Paris magazine Révolution, edited by J. M. Vergds, has been banned by the head of the French Sfreté Nationale because of an article entitled "The Last Overseas Departments, Confetti of the Empire." According to the authorities the article constituted “an open appeal-to rebellion and separatism,"
Written by Alain Plénel, the study deals with social, economic and political conditions on the islands of Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion, The concluding sentence reads: "The hour for a change in status has. sounded," a
Following the ban, the editor of Révolution sent a letter to the Paris daily Le Monde, expressing his views as follows: _ "The decision of the Minister of the Interior to ban the circulation of No. 7, the March issue of the monthly Révolution, consti-tutes a grave blow to freedom of the press,
"Since the end of the war with Algeria and the excoptional press regulations, this is the first seizure order issued against a periodical publication. This illegal measure implies serious consequences for the whole French press, all the more so since Révolution, contrary to the assertions of the general director of the Sureté Nation-~ ale, is a publication registered with the parity commission of the press,
"The article that was cited, which deais with the overseas French departments, contains‘ nothing that should bring the law down on it. The proof of this is that up to now no charges have been placed against either the author of the article nor the editor of the magazine,"
Révolution, an expensively printed, slick-paper magazine filled with photographs and running around a hundred pages each issue, is strongly pro-Chinese. Many of its articles are quite militant in tone.
It is difficult to understand why the article in question is considered by the authorities to be any more "subversive" than other articles in the magazine, or for that matter in many other publications of the French left, The declaration by Vergés that the ban on this issue of Révolution implies serious consequences for the whole French press will undoubtedly find wide support among those who stand for freedom of the press,
Whether or not it was so intended, the ban, following so soon after recognition of China by the.French government, will probably be interpreted by some political observers as a way of serving notice that the establishment of normal diplomatic reletians between.France . - and China is not to be taken as a greenlight: for revolutionary activities under Chinese auspices -- even in "the Last. confetti of the carnival of the Empire,"