Speaking on Television last Friday the 29th March, Bon Bella,’ the Algerian Prime Minister announced the collectivisation of the socalled abandoned properties. The latter name will no longer be used and the properties will be described as workers' and farmers' collactives in the future. It is estimated that the moasures will effect 2,500,000 acros of Algeria's best farmland and more than 500 industrial and commercial enterprises, In his speech, Ben Bella said that the settlers had been given a chance to return and co-operate with the workers' and farmers' collectives which had spontaneously taken over the propertios. However, none returned and now the properties would be handed over to the workers' and farmors! collectives.
Meanwhile local committees are taking over estates (not all of them "abandoned™) and on March 31st the estate of the notorious colonialist Henri Borgeand was nationalised, and taken over by a seven man administration committee. This estate,some 22 miles west of Algiers, consists of over 4,500 acres of rich farmland and. propertioss, Borgeeanud possessed thousands of acres of vineyards, was the hiad of ten big companies and the majority sharo holder in two tobacco firms, The noxt day, the estates of Germain and J. Aversang were taken over, These comprise more than seven thousand acres of rich land, In the Orleansville department, 3 estates totalling more thar! 20,000 acres havs been taken over, and similar takeovers have occurred in Blida, great Kabylia and greater Algiers, In the latter over 13 people who' bought" abandoned properties were expelled from them, Last October, the Algerian Government anrmlled all contracts and transactions in "abandoned properties".