Reforms in Egypt
Last week's industrial disturbances at Alexandria are still somewhat mysterious. It is understandable that the factory workers, like other sections of th6 Egyptian population, should have believed that the dawn of a new day had come with the Army's coup d'etat, and that their grievances, which are mainly financial, would be among the wrongs to be righted. But how and why the blobdshed happened, and what, if any, the sinister forces behind the scenes were, is still far from clear. There are, of course, many people who would like to see the present regime in Egypt discredited, and if it was by their design that the workers were forced into violent opposition with the army they must be admitted to have played their hand well. The incident came at an awkward moment for General Neguib and Ali Maher, when -the first excitement of the coup d'etat and the King's abdica- tion was beginning to wear off, to be replaced by a natural wish to see the first tangible fruits of the new regime's reforms. To the credit of the Army and the Cabinet, they seem to have held out against the temptation to find quick demagogic roads to popularity. The Budget which has been prepared is an auster9 one, in which even the armed forces, contrary to expectation, are made to plan for economies. There has, moreover, been no attempt to whip up hostility against the West and Israel (though it would be reading too much into this restraint to suggest that an Anglo-Egyptian settlement or peace with Israel was round the corner). The outstanding question in Egypt's internal political life is still land reform, and interest to see details of what the Govern- ment proposes to do in this matter, and whether the subject is one on which the Army and the politicians can agree, still overshadows interest in the punishment of those who have been accused of corruption. But in both matters the new regime's success or failure will be judged by what it does and not by what it says it is going to do.
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