Egypt's Terms
The news that Sir Ralph Stevenson and General Sir Brian Robertson have been appointed as the British representatives in the forthcoming negotiations with Egypt comes as a relief, even though the date for the opening of the talks has still not been fixed. When agreement on the Sudan was reached between Britain and Egypt two months ago it was hoped by both sides that it would only be a matter of days before talks on the Canal Zone began. Then something went wrong. Instead-of talks there has been a long-range exchange of increasingly testy argument. Colonel Gamal Nasser's interview to the Press last week-end was the most reasoned statement of the Egyptian point of view that has yet been given. He still demanded that the evacuation of British troops from the Canal should be unconditional, but at the same time he dropped the broad hint that some of the conditions Britain has apparently been holding out for—maintenance of the Canal base in a state of efficiency and a defence alliance involving the Arab League powers— were likely to be conceded in some form. Is this enough of a concession to base negotiations on ? To a certain extent the difficulty seems to be one of timing. If we insist that the Egyptians commit themselves to support of a Middle East defence pact before anything is decided about evacuation, then the talks may never start. Colonel Nasser was frank enough to admit that his Government had already made too many enemies to be able to afford risking the charge of poor patriotism—a charge that would be surely pressed home if evacuation was openly bargained over. Consequently to wait for a change of Egyptian heart that will never come would be to allow the situation to drift to a point where the Egyptians, to use one of their favourite similes, behave like Samson and drag down the temple on everybody's head, including their own. To try to start the talks with the mini- mum of preliminary commitments on either side, and concen- trate to begin with on such practical points as the number of troops and technicians that are needed to keep the Canal base efficient would be better.
Previous page
