Salt in the Old Wound
TtHE continuing refusal of the British Govern- ment to recognise the revolutionary govern- ment in the Yemen is embarrassing. Recognition was originally withheld because it was said to be unclear whether the new government was in effective control of the greater part of the terri- tory. Now it seems that the pretext is the presence of Egyptian troops. No one has any idea of the exact number of these troops, nor the extent of their recent activities. British officials put the number at something between 10,000 and 18,000 and admit that the bombing incidents seem to have stopped. Fighting in the hills con- tinues intermittently, and it is as much tribal and religious in its causes as it is against the revolution; and Marshal Sallal seems to be firmly in control in the larger cities. It is a wholly false- position on the part of the British Government to think that its conditional withholding of recognition is sufficient of a bribe to persuade the Egyptians to go away; it is far more likely to reopen old wounds, as is already apparent from President Nasser's hostile Suez anniversary speech, and to encourage the Egyptians to more ambitious claims south of the Yemen. The folly of this, with the situation in the Protectorates and Aden already so delicate, is hard to exag- gerate. The British plead lack of information, which in itself points to some failing in the Government's intelligence services. More perti- nently, however, it raises the question of who exactly is running British policy in the Middle East. Just as with the imposition of federation upon Aden, it looks as if a smaller number of people in the Southern Protectorates are having a disproportionate influence on British decisions. It is not as if Britain had any special love for the Imam, who was often quite as troublesome as any new Republican is likely to be, given Egyptian-Yemeni inability ever to get on well together for long. How much simpler it would have- been to have welcomed the initial kind words of the new regime early on, and seen it as an opportunity for securing at least some social progress in the territory. The present attitude is irrational and ill-advised.
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