FUTURE OF SUDAN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26353, 7 January 1947, Page 3

FUTURE OF SUDAN

CRUX OF BRITISH-EGYPTIAN RELATIONS ARAB LEAGUE’S DEMANDS LONDON, Jan. 5. Declaring that it is already clear that the Anglo-Egyptian treaty negotiations can make no further progress until Britain and Egypt find some way of reconciling their views about the Sudan’s future, The Times, in a leading article, says that Britain could not possibly accept the renewed Egyptian demand that “ the unity of the Nile Valley” shall be permanent. The ultimate right of the Sudanese people to decide their own destiny could not be prejudiced in this. fashion. On the contrary, they must be free to decide when the time comes whether their interest lies in independence or in a federal union with Egypt. The Egyptians would then be on stronger ground, The Times adds, if they asked that their vital interest in the ultimate decision of the Sudanese should be recognised, and if this were conceded, the present Egyptian suspicians might be allayed. The need is to find a way of convincing the Egyptians that Britain is not working against them.

The Arab League has come out in support of the Egyptian demand for permanent unity with the Sudan. The Cairo correspondent of The Times says that in an official statement the league describes this demand as being in accordance with the will of the Sudanese and the Egyptian peoples. The statement adds that the league also backs the Egyptian desire to prepare the Sudanese for self-government under the Egyptian Grown, and it is determined to defend Egypt’s case with the support of all the Arab States.