ANTAGONISM TO BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26513, 30 August 1951, Page 7

ANTAGONISM TO BRITAIN

Mass Meetings In Egypt (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, August 29. Correspondents ip Egypt say that a mass meeting of the Socialist, Nationalist. and Socialist-Peasant Parties in Cairo passed strong resolutions attacking Egypt’s 1936 treaty with Britain, and urging boycott on Britain and all things British. One resolution declared the treaty null and void “because it had been signed under the threat of British occupation,” and demanded that the Treaty and the agreement on the Sudan should be abrogated without delay or compromise.

A second resolution denounced any naw treaty with either Britain or America and a third called for a boycott of British so.diers and civilians and a refusal to allow good material and labour to reach British camps. All these resolutions are to be forwarded to the United Nations. According to the correspondent in Cairo of "The Times" Ahmed Kamil Kotb, of the Socialist-Peasant Party, said that if Egypt really wanted to ao away with imperialism, words were not enough. “Struggle and blood are the way to freedom, he said. The Nationalist Party leader (Fath| Radwan) said that Egypt should “reher martyrs ana tell the British to get out." The Socialist Party leader (Ahmed Hussein) said that freedom must be gained for the masses who did not wish to escape British imperialism in order to fall into the grasp of Beys and Pashas. He considered that the British should be boycotted completely, that every Egyptian who brought British goods should be regarded as an atheist, a traitor, and a criminal and that if the British “ found the Egyptians spitting in their faces in the street they would try to find another land to live in.” The correspondent of “The Times" adds; “The local press is busy forecasting what Saleh Ed Din, the Foreign Minister, will say to Parliament on September 3 when he is due to state Egypt’s policy towards Britain and. the Treaty, “The consensus of opinion is that he will announce the Government’s firm decision to abrogate the treaty in midSeptember if satisfactory new proposals have not previously been received from London. "To be satisfactory to Egypt these proposals must be based on the recognition of the Egyptian determination that Britain must withdraw her troops and recognise the unity of the Sudan with Egypt. "Some commentators suggest that Britain may attempt to solve the problem of their troops by bringing Egypt in some way within the framework of the Atlantic Pact, while others think that the Foreign Secretary (Mr Morrison) will suggest an international, instead of a British, force for the Suez Canal Zone."