SIR,—Mr. Desmond Stewart is in error when he states that
the four French officials awaiting trial in Cairo do not enjoy diplomatic privilege. In execution of the Zurich agreement of April 22, 1959, and of a letter to the Swiss Government of April 23 of the same year, the United Arab Republic granted in its Official Gazette of September 16, 1959, inviolability of the French mission's premises, of its archives and of its documents, immunity of jurisdiction for all acts done in the mission's members' official capacity, exemption from taxes and customs duties and from formalities regulating the residence of aliens. These are the immunities enjoyed by diplomats, enumerated precisely because there were and are still no diplomatic relations between France and the United Arab Republic. They were granted on condition of reciprocity. Here comes the rub. No Egyptian mission was sent to France. The Cairo Government has no reason to fear reprisal.
If the Egyptians had reason to think that the French mission was abusing Egyptian hospitality, the means of redress were in their hands. They had only to inform the French Government through the Swiss Government that the members of the French mission were personae non gratae and demand their withdrawal. Mr. Stewart appears to accept all the statements of the Egyptian Government. How does he know that the French mission was not discreet, or in what daydreams French Arabic scholars indulged? He can scarcely claim that the Egyptian statements
are subjected to the test of criticism in a free press, or that the French officials now in prison have enjoyed the means of defence that he or I would hope to have if we had the misfortune to be accused of a crime. He says no word about accused men being exhibited to reporters or forced to appear on television when they were not being allowed access to counsel or to the Swiss Embassy.
D. R. GILLIE
2/ Rue Casimir Perier, Paris Vlle
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