Nokrashy for Sidky
How far the resignation of Sidky Pasha, the Egyptian Prime Minister, is due to purely physical causes can only be surmised. The probability is that the Prime Minister, who has been in poor health for some time, has found the strain of the latest complica- tions in the treaty negotiations imposing on him a strain beyond his endurance. The complications arise wholly out of the problem of the Sudan, and that in its turn has become acute because of what the still unpublished agreement reached in London between Sidky Pasha and Mr. Sevin is reputed to contain. Whether the various statements issued in Khartum, Cairo and London in the past week will make for pacification anywhere may be doubted. But at least they make in some degree for clarification. Britain having been compelled to admit that juridically the King of Egypt is also King of the Sudan, Sir Hubert Huddleston, Governor-General of the Sudan, was constrained to assure the Sudanese, immediately on his return from London last week, that nothing had been or would be agreed to that would prejudice the right of the Sudanese to decide their own future and achieve their independence. This has caused perturbation at Cairo, where it is argued that Egypt has agreed that the Sudanese are entitled to their independence, and that there is no reason why the British should set up as special champions of it. None of this will make things easier for the new Prime Minister, Nokrashy Pasha, who has already proved his ability as Prime Minister from February, 5945, to February, 1946. His declaration on taking office indicates that he aims at an early signature to the treaty, and under it to achieve the unity of the Sudan with Egypt "under the Egyptian Crown for ever." If that is achieved by the free will of the Sudanese no objection can be raised here. But it is imperative that the Sudanese be left as free to choose complete independence as to choose self-government coupled with some special relationship either to Britain or to Egypt. The treaty must make that unmistakably plain.
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