UN General Assembly
1952

109. But something that Mr. Schuman said later seemed to indicate that political development had perhaps not been permitted to keep pace with development in the economic and social fields. Referring to the detailed programme of reforms which the French Government had submitted to the Bey, the Foreign Minister said: “We are trying to spread democratic organization at all levels, starting at the bottom in the municipalities and other local communities.” I must confess that this came to me as something of a surprise; that in 1952, seventy years after France assumed responsibility for Tunisia, the French Government was only just beginning to think of introducing these reforms.