RELATIONS WITH EGYPT

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26511, 28 August 1951, Page 7

RELATIONS WITH EGYPT

BRITAIN URGED TO STAND FIRM

(Rec. 8.30 p.m.) LONDON, August 27. “What is needed now is an immediate and unequivocal statement that Britain Will maintain her legal rights ih the Canal Zone and the Sudan at all costs,” says the “Daily Telegraph’’ in a leading article urging strong British action should Egypt, as Her Prime Minister (Nahas Pasha) has threatened, proceed with the abrogation bf the 1938 treaty With Britain. “We shoud make it clear that we canfibt Be shouted out of Our treaty rights in Egypt in the same way as we allowed the oil agreement to be flouted by Persia.” says the newspaper. “It is, indeed, our shillyshallying Weakness in that country, together with our previously spineless attitude towards Egypt herself, that encourages Nahds Pasha to announce the final step. "It should be made quite clear that the abrogation bf the treaty cannot in any way alter the status quo, British troops Will remain in the Canal Zone, where Britain has a clear legal right to maintain them until 1906. “Equally, there is no reason Why Britain should recognise Egypt’s illfounded claims to the ‘unity of the Nile valley,’ and Hand over to her sole charge the destinies of the Sudanese people. “The presence of British troops in the Canal Zone is not Only a BritishEgyptian matter, for Britain bears responsibilities in the Middle East for all her Western allies and the Commonwealth. Without the Catial Zone base, neither the Middle East (including Egypt herself) nor Africa can be defended, ahd at the present juncture of World affairs there is no possible alternative to its maintenance.”