Unbudging Positions

An Anglo-Egyptian meeting to negotiate the evacuation of Britain's $1.5 billion Suez Canal base was drawing desultorily to a close last week when Lieut. Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt's most powerful man behind Reluctant Dictator Na guib, rose to his full 6 ft. and snapped: "Gentlemen, let us not waste our time." With that, the British delegates crammed papers into portfolios and stalked out; the talks, which had been going on for ten days, were broken off. Egypt vowed it would not move an inch from these points:

P: British troops must quit the giant base unconditionally, with no strings whatso ever.

P: Once British troops leave, the entire base must be turned over to the Egyptian army, to be maintained and defended by Egypt alone. Should Egypt need foreign technical experts, she would choose them herself, and not necessarily from among the British.

P: Egypt is not prepared to link evacuation of the canal to the issue of Middle East defense.

P: So far as the U.S.-British proposal for a Middle East Defense Organization is concerned, Egypt considers the U.N. Charter and the Arab (League) Security

Pact sufficient to insure defense of the region.

Next day London fired back a reply: sorry, but the Suez Canal base is too vital to Middle Eastern and Western defense for the British to clear out unconditionally. Britain will not evacuate unless and until she is sure that in an emergency the base would be operated efficiently for the common good.

This week General Naguib spoke beside the tomb of Egypt's Unknown Soldier: "We [have] washed our hands of talks which were intended to impose a disguised occupation on Egypt. Hot bloodshed is the only way of attaining independence. We are not afraid of death."

As Anglo-Egyptian relations swirled into this violent state, U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles flew into the storm center at Cairo (see below). At the airport he read a prepared statement acclaiming Naguib as "one of the outstanding free-world leaders," and added: "Perhaps my visit here will help clear up some misunderstandings."

As they sat down together for their first meeting, Naguib was startled to see Dulles pull a holstered, .32-calibre Colt automatic from his pocket and place it on the mahogany table. The Secretary laughed and handed the pistol to Naguib, still slightly bewildered. Then he read from a silver plate on the handle: "To General Mohammed Naguib, from his friend, Dwight D. Eisenhower." It was one of the President's personal pistols. "This is to preserve peace with, not fight a war," said Dulles. Naguib smiled and said: "I know."

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