Technique in Egypt
If, in dealings with Egypt, deeds were all that mattered and words could be ignored, there would be no great cause for misgiving or alarm about the future. The patient and careful procedure followed by the Minister of State, Mr, Selwyn Lloyd, during his visit to the Sudan and Cairo, has led to practical results of the utmost value. The difficulties about nominations to the Governor-General's commission, whose task is to help the Governor-General during the transi- tion to self determination, haVe been removed; the commission has been set up, and it can now go on to the next stage, which is the approval of a further commission to superviSe elections in the Sudan. This has been achieved despite the mercurial and often unhelpful behaviour of the representative& of. the Egyptian Government, wild and often inaccurate statements by some of General Neguib's associates, and even by the General himself, and still wilder and often completely fanciful outbursts in the Egyptian Press. All these demonstrations have had the effect of delaying progress towards the essential Sudan elections, so that now there will have to be very quick action to complete those elections in a reasonable time: It is still possible that some minor explosion may be magnified by an artificial outcry to bring the gains already secured to nothing. The good intentions of the British Government and its dogged progress towards a reasonable settlement in the Sudan—a settlement which will leave the Sudanese free to determine their own future—may be clear to all the world, but, unless some technique can be found for putting those intentions into effect in co-operation with an Egypt which is still in a highly inflammable state, all the good work can be wiped out over- night. No doubt the British officials on the spot have learned a great deal about the nature of that technique. Perhaps the. Government could now help them by making its long awaited statement on future policy in the Canal Zone. For to wait for complete calm and stability in Egypt before breaking silence would be to ignore the main problem—the technical problem of maintaining diplomatic calm and progress in a season of propaganda storms.
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