MOROCCO DISCARDING THE EGGSHELLS A YOUNG MONARCH IN A SHAKY NEW COUNTRY 
CAN DO WORSE THAN CHOOSE CHARLES DE GAULLE AS A MODEL 
TO RULE BY . MOROCCO'S HASSAN II IS JUST SUCH A 
KING . LIKE LE GRAND CHARLES, HASSAN CONSIDERS HIMSELF HIS COUNTRY'S 
INDISPENSABLE MAN, AND HE MAY BE RIGHT . LIKE DE GAULLE 
HE CHOSE THE DEVICE OF A POPULAR REFERENDUM WHEN HE DECIDED 
TO ADOPT A CONSTITUTION (TIME, DEC . 28) ; HIS SMASHING 
VICTORY WON HASSAN THE RARE ESTEEM OF HIS IDOL IN PARIS 
. EMPLOYING SOME GAULLIST FIRMNESS, HASSAN HAS NOW FIRED THE THREE 
MEMBERS OF HIS CABINET WHO REPRESENTED THE POWERFUL ISTIQLAL PARTY, FILLED 
THEIR JOBS WITH OFFICIALS STOUTLY LOYAL TO THE THRONE . SINCE 
ISTIQLAL WAS THE PARTY LARGELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ORGANIZING HASSAN'S SUCCESSFUL REFERENDUM, 
THERE WERE THOSE WHO THOUGHT HASSAN WAS A BIT UNGRATEFUL . 
BUT ISTIQLAL LEADERS WERE PRESSING FOR CLOSE ECONOMIC AND DIPLOMATIC TIES 
WITH CAIRO, BASED ON A COMMON ISLAMIC HERITAGE, AND DEMANDING THAT 
HASSAN PURSUE MOROCCO'S CLAIMS TO SPANISH SAHARA, MAURITANIA AND PART OF 
ALGERIA'S SAHARA . REFUSING TO SALAAM TO GAMAL ABDEL NASSER, KING 
HASSAN RESISTED, ARGUING THAT THE NATION'S FUTURE LIES LESS WITH THE 
ARAB WORLD THAN WITH FRANCE AND EUROPE'S COMMON MARKET . HE 
ALSO OPPOSED THE NATIONALISTS' AGITATION ON THE BORDER CLAIMS . SAID 
HASSAN'S CLOSEST POLITICAL CONFIDANT, CABINET DIRECTOR AHMED REDA GUEDIRA, AFTER THE 
PURGE : " THE KING HAD TO GET RID OF THE 
GRAINS OF SAND WHICH ALWAYS KEPT THE STATE MACHINERY OUT OF 
ORDER . . . THE LEADERS AND PLATFORMS OF THE OLD 
PARTIES ARE STALE, LIKE EMPTY EGGSHELLS . " IT WAS GAULLIST 
RHETORIC, AND IT HINTED OF STILL ANOTHER GAULLIST TOUCH . RABAT 
BUZZED WITH RUMORS THAT HASSAN WAS READY TO ORGANIZE HIS OWN 
POLITICAL MACHINE . ACCORDING TO ONE REPORT, THE NAME FOR THE 
NEW GROUP WAS ALREADY CHOSEN : UNION FOR NEW ROYALTY U.N.R 
. THEY ARE THE SAME INITIALS AS THOSE OF CHARLES DE 
GAULLE'S UNION FOR THE NEW REPUBLIC . 