So Little Time

Premier Hilary Pasha's deadline was May 18. Unless Hilaly, who is able but has no following, could in the meantime win public support, the powerful and corrupt Wafd opposition was sure to win the general election. Hilaly needed to score a diplomatic success with the British. Last week the British were not helpful.

They were willing to evacuate the Suez Canal Zone if Egypt would join a Middle East Command. But they refused to turn over to the Egyptians the Sudan, which Egypt now claims. Quite the opposite: fortnight ago Britain announced plans to hasten self-rule for the Sudanese. It was a blow to Hilaly Pasha: only the urging of King Farouk and U.S. Ambassador Jefferson Caffery kept Hilaly from breaking off the talks then & there.

Apparently the British did not consider Hilaly a strong enough man to bother trying to save. Britain's critics in the Middle East, who are numerous and noisy, saw it another way: once again Britain was foolishly letting down a friend, and inviting a Mossadegh kind of successor.

Last week Hilaly Pasha dejectedly stopped the clock: he postponed the May 18 elections. Muffled by censorship and martial law, the Wafd opposition called his action unconstitutional.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.