BRITAIN AND EGYPT [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—Referring to your article of March 31st—" Britain and Egypt—The Next Step "—may I endorse the letter of
your correspondent, W. T. B., appearing in the same issue, and may I ask what would be the value in time of war of the
international guarantee to which you look forward in your comment on W. T. B.'s letter ? Of what practical value would _be a guarantee by the United States to keep open the Suez Canal when a few bombs and a few hours would suffice to close it to traffic ?
In your article you "assure the Egyptian Prime Minister that there are many in Great Britain who are anxious to see a strong and independent Egypt in permanent alliance with the British Empire." Doubtless, but can Egypt be described as strong ? Is an independent Egypt likely to remain inde- pendent without British support, and by support I mean prac- tical support, on the spot ?
Surely our Imperial interests force us to hold the Suez Canal, while our undertaking to protect the interests of other nationals in Egypt lays on us 'a responsibility which we cannot repudiate.
To quote again from your article :—" But when we treat with Egypt, we must be careful not to adopt the position of a schoolmaster lecturing his charge : discussions must proceed on a footing of equality, as Nahas Pasha has said."
Is not this assumption of equality being pushed to extremes ? It is the negation of all historic fact, and the millennium is not yet. Is a virile race to simulate equality with one that is effete ? I do not mean this to be taken literally as applying to Britain and Egypt, but as a general theory. If this is to
be the rule of the world, is it not legitimate to ask, Why does the system of post-War mandates exist ?
Would the British Empire have come into being had we looked upon all other races as our equals Y-1 am, Sir, &c., J. E. N.
Previous page
