King Fuad and After The death of King Fuad comes,
as such events often do, at an inopportune moment, when war is in progress not far from the frontiers of Egypt and actually on the frontiers of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan ; when a General Election is imminent, when Italian propaganda is rife from Alexandria to Berber, and when delicate negotiations between this country and Egypt on the questions still unsettled between them are in progress. The effect of the elimination of " Palace influence "--for a Council of Regency necessitated by the young King's minority wilt certainly not be able to exert Palace influence in the accepted sense —on the political situation is hard to predict. Some conjectures on the subject arc embodied in an article by Mr T A Spender on a later page. But King Fund was an adept at playing off one party against another, and there will be little now to cheek the Wald Nationalists, who can count on securing a substantial majority at next month's elections. If the result is to stiffen the Egyptian negotiators the Anglo-Egyptian ne- gotiations will break down; not much seems to have been achieved yet in any ease. In that event the status quo will continue uneasily, but hostile propagandists will seize their new opportunity, and the hope of effecting some small extension of the settled area in an unsettled world will have been frustrated. The election campaign is already being marked by fatalities, which promises ill for the consolidation so urgently needed.
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