Order in Egypt
The gesture of recalling the Egyptian Ambassador in London has been made, but the only result of it will be to weaken Egypt diplomatically. It is illogical that, at a moment when the Foreign Ministers of Britain and Egypt were meeting in Paris, Amr Pasha should have been on his way home ; however unpromising the latest exchanges between London and Cairo may have been, the normal channels of civilised communication are the only alternative which exists to a settlement by force. The main concern of the British Govern- ment at this juncture should not be to present new proposals to the Egyptians, who are committed in advance to the rejection of any settlement short of absolute surrender, but to prepare the lines along which a settlement might be worked out if the atmosphere in Egypt improves. It would, however, be disastrous to assume in Egypt, as we assumed for so long in Persia, that this change in atmosphere can only be caused by a change in government. True, Cairo today is as full of rumours of the impending fall of Nahas Pasha as Tehran has been for the last six months of the imminent fall of Dr. Moussadek. But the real change will, if it happens, be noticeable in the Canal Zone before it is detected in the capital, and no doubt Mr. Eden has taken the opportunity to explain to Salah ed-Din Pasha in Paris that our immediate anxiety is to prevent the " incidents " by the Canal from flaring up into a state of undeclared war. Some form of agreement with the Egyptian authorities—whether Cabinet Ministers or local officials—is not impossible on this point. The " Liberation Battalions " exist in the delta and are acquiring arms. They are undoubtedly a potential menace, but who or what they menace is not so clear. In theory they are under the control of the Minister of the Interior, who must be feeling about as happy with his new possession as a holiday- maker who has picked up on the beach a land-mine whose mechanism he does not understand. Action to avert the decay of public order is a common ground on which British and Egyptians can still meet.
