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Colonisation as a crime
RE: Simon Heffer (Comment, March). Firstly, he dismisses Emmanuel Macron’s statement about colonisation [of Algeria] being a crime against humanity as grandstanding rubbish.
Secondly, many French people believe that their forbears brought with them a civilising decency to the place colonised, whatever mistakes were made. Mr Heffer does not mention that Macron made his statement on a visit to Algiers earlier this year where he was in bilateral talks with the government.
In the context of the conflict, which tore France apart and brought down the Fourth Republic, Macron’s statement has some validity. Many of the colonial forbears mentioned arrived at places such as Algeria with an inherent sense of racial superiority which justified the mistreatment of people it viewed as inferior.
Philip Elliott, Vienne
