BRITAIN AND EGYPT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20560, 10 May 1930, Page 11

BRITAIN AND EGYPT.

[TREATY NEGOTIATIONS.

FAILURE OF CONFERENCE.

SUDAN STUMBLING' BLOCK.

IMPOSSIBLE DEMANDS. NO CONCESSION MADE. By Teleprnnh—Press Association— Copyright. (Received May 9. 9.5 p.m.) LONDON, May 9. Tho Anglo-Egyptian conference has broken down, the Sudan problem having proved to h"> in s"r mount able. Tho negotiators were friendly at parting and mutually agreed that the door had been left open for a resumption of the negotiations when tho atmosphere is more favourable.

Nahas Pasha, Prime Minister of Egypt, gaid he was grieved at the failure. There was nothing he wanted more than to be on good terms with Britain. Makram Bey, Egyptian Minister of Finance. said it was very regrettable that the negotiations had been broken off, but they could not si>n a treaty which would mem Egypt signing away the Sudan.

i Tho British Foreign Secretary, Mr. 'Arthur . Henderson, announced in the House of Commons that tho conference had failed. This aroused Opposition cheers and Ministerial cries of: " Shame. Disgraceful," Reserved Points Maintained.

Mr. Henderson said the Cabinet saw nc way to meet, the demands of the Egyptians in regard to the Stidnn. He would shortly lay on the table a White pnner traversing the negotiations.

Captain A. Eden, Conservative member for Warwickshire, asked if tho status quo would bo maintained in the meantime on the four reserved points. Mr. Henderson said that must bo the inevitable result of tho failure of the negotiations. The four points in question had been reserved by Britain in tho declaration of 1922 for future settlement. They were: (1) The protection of Egypt from foreign aggression; (2) the protection of British Imperial communications; (3) the protection of foreign residents and minorities in Egypt; (4) tho Sudan. Britain's Extreme Limit. Tho recent negotiations arose out of proposals- for an Anglo-Egyptian treaty to settle these outstanding points, which were made by Mr. Henderson last August after conversations in London with Mahmud Pasha, then Prime Minister of Egypt. Mr Henderson., in a covering Note, described the proposals as representing the extreme limit which he could recommend the British Government to accept. The present Egyptian Prime Minister, Nahas Pasha, with his delegation came to London at the end of March to conduct the negotiations on a basis of those proposals. After his brief announcement in <ho J House 6f Commons the Foreign Secre- i tary, who had postponed his intended departure this morning for Paris and Geneva, caught the afternoon boat train j to the Continent. The Egyptian delegates are expected to leave London to- j morrow. ; It is understood that so far as; the | questions* relating to Egypt were con- j cerned an agreement had actually been | reached, or was well within sight, upon all the points .at issue. London Press Comment. The Daily Telegraph expresses the j opinion that there is no present possibility j of coming to reasonable terms with the Wafdist Government of Egypt, and that by attempting it Mr. Henderson merely courted a rebuff. The attitude of the Egyptians in London saved Britain from

making an incredible blunder, contempi lating as they did a time limit to British military guardianship over the Suez Canal and other, concessions which they made provisional to a full settlement. The Morning Post asks: "Has Mr. Henderson no pride ? It would have been more appropriate to the great office he holds if, instead of saying the door is still open, Ije had told the Egyptian delegates that Britain will now return to the position as it existed before 1922. Wo have tried concession arid surrender and they have failed. Let us return to firmness, which has succeeded."

belief in caieo.

BRITISH COMMUNITY.

CONCESSIONS FEARED

(Receive! 1 Ma. !», 8.5 p.m.)

CAIRO. May 0.

The British community in Cairo is relieved the collapse of the treaty negotiations iri London. It had been feared that concessions would be made.