EVACUATION OF CANAL ZONE

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26987, 12 March 1953, Page 9

EVACUATION OF CANAL ZONE

Move To Forestall Egyptian Note (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, March 11. Sir Ralph Stevenson, the British Ambassador in Cairo, has been instructed to make a quick move to open negotiations to forestall any Egyptian Note demanding the unconditional withdrawal o£ British troops from the Canal Zone within six months, says the “Daily Express.” Reports from Cairo yesterday said that the Egyptian Note would be delivered about March 21. Field-Marshal Sir William Slim is expected to go to Cairo soon to join the talks in which Britain’s object will be to ensure that the vast military base in the Canal Zone is preserved for Allied use in the event of war.

General Naguib today strongly attacked the British Administration in the Sudan, accusing it of reverting to the old colonial methods before the ink was dry on the agreement on the Sudan.

At a press conference he said he regretted that soon after signing the agreement with Britain in the Sudan he had received numerous complaints from responsible Sudanese leaders that British officials had arrested a number of Sudanese tribesmen and thrown them in gaol because they supported the Egyptian-Sudanese Pact of January 10. “We have also received complaints of maltreatment of Sudanese tribesmen at the hands of British officials,” he said.

Earlier the Egyptian Foreign Minister (Dr. Mohammed Fawzy) said Egypt would in future deal with the Governor-General of the Sudan (Sir Robert Howe) directly, instead of through the British Embassy in Cairo. He said the Egyptian Government was anxious to go ahead with Sudan elections and added that the delay was not due to Egypt. General Naguib also alleged that the British Administration in the Sudan had appointed a number of officials to permanent jobs so that they might remain there for longer periods. “When we agree to something, we agree as men, and we cannot accept anything other than what was agreed on. We will tolerate no bargaining. British conduct in the Sudan weakens our confidence in any future treaty with them.”

A few hours after General Naguib’s statement, authoritative circles said a Note would be delivered to Britain about March 21 demanding unconditional withdrawal of British troops from the Suez Carnal Zone within six months. The circles said tonight the Note would demand laying down a time-table for a “phased withdrawal” in six stages, with a corresponding take over by Egyptian armed forces. “Based on Misunderstandings” Reuter’s diplomatic correspondent says that General Naguib’s allegations are based on a number of misunderstandings. The facts were that at the end of last week a Khartoum politician. Dr. Ahmed el Sayed, and three of his supporters were detained for one night at the southern township of Aweil by a Sudanese police sergeant. Dr. Sayed was addressing a crowd in the market place in defiance of a local ruling that all political meetings must be held in private places. The sergeant, fearing a breach of the peace, detained the four men, who were released next day on bail, pending an inquiry—from which no prdsecution had resulted. The correspondent said that three others were arrested in the town of Wau for demonstrating against foreign shopkeepers who refused to close their shops as a gesture of sympathy with those arrested at Aweil. These also had been acquitted. General Naguib’s charge that the Sudan Government had recently appointed officials to permanent jobs was also wrong. No appointments had been made by the Sudan Government since the conclusion of the self-government agreement with Egypt.