The announcement of the pre-announcement has come to pass.

FRANCE TO RAISE PENSIONS OF NON-FRENCH VETERANS

PARIS September 27, 2006 (AFP) - France said Wednesday it is to raise the pensions of war veterans from its former colonies who fought in its armed forces to the same level as their French counterparts, lifting a four-decade freeze widely seen as unjust.

... [Veterans Affairs Minister Hamlaoui] Mekachera said the measure, which would come into effect from next year but which would not be backdated, affected 80,000 non-French veterans, most of them from north and west Africa.

"They will receive exactly the same payment in euros as French nationals receive," he told journalists after a cabinet meeting.

And -- Poof! -- just that easily 57 years of back pay, by far the greater part of France's obligation, is waved away.

President Jacques Chirac, who ordered the pension rise after seeing "Days of Glory" [Indigènes] in a private screening early this month, said it was an "an act of justice."

The cinema compels Jack to do what the real-life plights and petitions of the aggrieved could not move him to do. Ah, the magic of movies. If you are seeking justice from the French government, best send along a little themed entertainment with a gushy soundtrack, a tub of popcorn, and a cellophane packet of Kleenex.

"We owe it to these men who paid a price in blood, and to their children and their grandchildren, many of whom are French," he told his cabinet.

Yes, but apparently France doesn't feel it owes much. The injustice is 57-years' long, but the remedy is not retroactive. There is an urgency to the remedy for the aging veterans, yet French pay equity won't kick in till some unspecified time next year. And nothing here about redressing the deceaseds' estates.

A Moroccan veterans' association, ANAC, welcomed the decision but said it came late and urged France to implement it quickly.

"They did this a bit too late. The majority of those concerned are already deceased."

Ah, well, few have the necessary vitality to wait on the slow hand of French justice. And as glad as we are for those veterans who survive long enough to see a beep-up in their pensions, we are not much impressed with the magnanimity of French justice.

France makes a big show of French justice, without the inconveniences of the real justice required. As Jack swims in his headlines, we remind our readers that the puny remedy announced arrived by way of the enormous injustice done. An injustice acknowledged and perpetrated by successive French governments. After 57 years of ingratitude, the problem has thinned out appreciably finally bringing it within the teeny compass of French largesse.

PFFT (What is this?): Undying gratitude of the Republic ¼ | Cheap justice 4½ | Material redress ¼ | Rayonnement français ⅛