A new group of " Bevin boys "—the British diplomatic
repre- sentatives in the Middle East—is already gathering at the Foreign Office at the Foreign Minister's behest. The senior of them is Lord Killearn, British Ambassador in Egypt. As Sir Miles Lampson he went to Cairo as High Commissioner in 1934, and has, I think I am right in saying, been the chief British representative in Egypt longer than any predecessor since Cromer. The feeling, indeed, is rather strong in many quarters that it is more than time to make a change. Lord Killearn has done excellent work, but he was nine years in China before he went to Cairo, and has therefore been close on twenty years out of direct touch with public opinion at home, particularly with the tide of opinion which has brought the present Government into power. Egypt itself, moreover, has changed considerably in the last decade, and with a demand grow- ing for the removal of the last restrictions on full independence it may well be thought desirable to send to Cairo someone tem- peramentally sympathetic to those aspirations and to the general outlook of the Government at home. Since Lord Killearn is well over retiring age such a move would be perfectly natural. * * * *
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