Spectator's Notebook
IT is hard to take the new British strong-arm methods in Aden very seriously. I prefer to see them as a prelude to Britain accelerating her departure. It is. after all, very difficult to, see what Britain can achieve by just hanging on indefinitely, except the further odium of the Egyptians and Adenis. We are resigned to getting out sometime and there is still no unbridgeable gulf between us and the Aden people. Only the practical difficul- ties have prevented us from making the intention Public, but there is no reason to believe that these will have been removed in two or three years' time. They might then be worse. We shall still have the problem of the site for an alternative base, if we need one, and the task of holding to- gether a probably unworkable federation will still be as hard as ever.
People cling, of course, to the myth of an all- Powerful, all-devouring Nasser; yet if Nasser wanted to march into an evacuated Aden, do we really believe he is capable of it? Do we really think the Saudis would let him? And if Nasser Were replaced in a couple of years' time, his suc- cessor would be unlikely to be any more hospit- able to a British presence in the area than he is. lol the sake of holding on to a territory that is of little alternative use to anyone else, we tie our hands in the whole of the rest of the Middle East. No European country really supports us, neither 'I° the Americans. It simply isn't worth it. The pattern has become over-familiar. First the show of strength, then the search for a face- ,saving solution. Not perhaps the best way to with- draw, but withdrawal nonetheless.
Previous page
