Lay That Burden Down

Take up the White Man's burden, And reap his old reward: The blame of those ye better, The hate of those ye guard--The cry of hosts ye humor (Ah, slowly!) toward the light: "Why brought ye us from bondage, Our loved Egyptian night?"

--Kipling (1899)

The British marched out of India in 1948 with colors flying, pipes skirling, and every upper lip as stiff as Kitchener's the day the dervishes whirled and charged him at Omdurman. But all the pomp and bluster of yesterday were missing last week when the last British soldiers pulled out of another great outpost of Empire. Five days before the deadline set by the Anglo-Egyptian agreement, Brigadier John H. S. Lacey handed over the keys of his Suez Canal headquarters to Lieut. Colonel Abdullah Azouni of the Egyptian army and quietly led the last 91 of Britain's 80,000-man garrison aboard a landing craft bound for Cyprus.

Brigadier Lacey explained wanly that the departure, after 74 years, was kept unobtrusive "to foster understanding and friendship between the two countries."

As the British remnant sailed out of Port Said, Egypt's new, Soviet-made MIG jets screamed triumphantly over Cairo. They were warming up for Premier Gamal Abdel Nasser's big "Liberation Day" show scheduled for the moment when Egypt formally takes over the Zone this week. Arriving as Nasser's special guest at the festivities: Russia's new Foreign Minister Dmitry Shepilov.

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