EGYPTIAN CLAIMS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26542, 18 August 1947, Page 5

EGYPTIAN CLAIMS

MODERATING INFLUENCES DIRECT NEGOTIATIONS MAY BE RESUMED Rec. 11.15 p.m. CAIRO, Aug. 16. Although extreme Nationalists still talk of refusing to accept anything except the full Egyptian 1 claims, and call on the nation to prepare for a struggle, the voice of the moderate Egyptians is at last being heard. The public is being told that Egypt has by no means won a victory at Lake Success, and that too much must not be expected from the Security Council. There is increasing talk of the possibility of the resumption of direct negotiations, even among extreme Nationalists. In moderate circles there is a feeling that the Security Council will order the evacuation of British troops from Egypt and refer the Sudan question to the study of a special body but whatever the outcome at Lake Success, the essential problem will remain that of regulating the future of Anglo-Egyptian and Sudanese relations in the best interests of each. Therefore, there is unconcealed disappointment that as far as is known the British have not yet gone a stage further than the simple affirmation of the British position. Moderate Egyptians, no matter how good patriots they may be, will not be sorry if the Security Council upholds the legal validity of the 1936 treaty, for they do not subscribe to the view that the treaty can be invalidated because one party to it believes it has outlived its original purpose; and many Egyptians are concerned lest the world begins to question the value of an Egyptian signature, but equally, they feel that the British should not be blind to the unanimity of the Egyptian dislike for the 1936 treaty and the intensity of the Egyptian desire for the evacuation of British troops It is not enough, they say, for Britain to rest with the establishing of the validity of the treaty; that is a. halt, when what is wanted is a step forward—a plan for a future worthy of Britain’s rich store of experience and constructive ability.