SIR,-1 am delighted that Mr. Desmond Stewart now agrees with
me that the four French officers on trial in Cairo for espionage and plotting to murder Presi- dent Nasser should at the worst be called 'alleged spies' until they have had a chance to defend them- selves. Mr. Stewart accepts the view of the Cairo court that the phrase restricting jurisdictional im- munity of the four officials to the task of their mission permits the trial. First of all, this is not the opinion of all or perhaps most experts in the matter. Why not have accepted international arbitration as France proposed? Secondly, what about the inviol- ability of the mission's premises, archives and docu- ments, also specifically guaranteed? Could there have been a trial if there had not been microphones in the walls, and if the entire archives and all the documents had not been seized?
I submit that this is contrary to•the general interest of all of us, and that such treatment of a mission with limited functions at a time when ordinary diplomatic relations between two countries do not exist, is particularly undesirable. The Government of the United Arab Republic had the means of re- dress, if it had a grievance, namely to demand the recall of the mission. I would like to add that those of us who work abroad, and in particular those of us who are correspondents of newspapers have the strongest reasons for objecting to the facile use of the charge: espionage. We need firmly entrenched diplomats.
The French woman secretary of the mission has not, as Mr. Stewart supposes, returned to France. She has only been released from prison quite recently and is not allowed to leave Egypt until the trial is over. Mr. Stewart seems to think that France has no right to defend her servants; she would surely be despic- able if she did not. The near-breakdown of the French system of justice in connection with the Algerian war is not a reason why we should be in- different to violations of the system of diplomatic guarantees built up so painfully. It is one of the valuable gifts of the States enjoying full responsibility during the last 200 years, to the nations now enter- ing upon it, Since they have inherited from us so many handicaps, we should sec that they get the good things too.
D. R. GILLIE
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