THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1948. EGYPTIAN TROUBLES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26967, 30 December 1948, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1948. EGYPTIAN TROUBLES

Assassination is becoming almost an occupational risk for those who achieve eminence in Egyptian politics. Early in 1945 the Prime Minister, Ahmed Maher Pasha, was murdered. Since then there have been repeated attempts on the life of the Wafd leader, Nahas Pasha, and now another Prime Minister, Nokrashy Pasha, has met his death by violence. These deplorable crimes are in themselves indications of the existence of an unnatural state of tension in the country, but when they are considered with other symptoms —such as the Cairo riots three weeks ago, when the Chief of Police was killed; the numerous attacks on foreigners, which the Government ignores or is powerless to prevent; and the serious police strike in April—it is remarkable that a major crisis has not developed before this. To enhance this internal confusion, there are two major external problems—the heavy defeats in the Palestine war, and the continuation of the dispute over the AngloEgyptian Treaty, with which is associated the question of the future of the Sudan. The position of the Government for some months past has been very unstable, and it is unlikely that it will survive the unrest caused by the murder of Nokrashy Pasha. It would probably have fallen sodh in any case for some commentators have suggested that revolution and not merely the collapse of a Government is imminent. “ The chief needs of Egypt,” wrote a correspondent of The Times last month, “ are the settlement of the Palestine and British disputes. Without peace, economic and social progress is impossible, and every thinking Egyptian knows that prosperity and the strength to be derived from it are his country’s best bulwarks against Communism and Zionist • ambitions.” Egypt was drawn into the Palestine war by the aim of the Palace clique in Cairo to establish leadership of the Arab League. So strict is the censorship that the country does not yet know the full story of the failure of the army in the Negeb, and even now the battle is raging which may put Egypt out of the fight. Fears of Communism are also well founded. Ever since the war, Russian “ diplomatic activity ” has been on a large scale, and the Moslem Brotherhood, the most important semi-secret political organisation, is believed to be partly under Communist influence. It is stated that a member of this body was responsible for the murder of Nokrashy Pasha, who had recently imposed a ban on it. In so confused a situation the repercussions of the crime may be extremely grave. There is a real danger that the cauldron of unrest which has been seething higher and higher in recent years' may be about to boil over.

THE GREATER COMMONWEALTH The proud and purposeful employment by the King of the expression “ British ” Commonwealth of Nations has revived some speculation regarding the future of the Commonwealth and its role in the new world. It would be impossible, of course, to draw up any rigid formula to govern the relationships between the heterogeneous communities which at present comprise the family of nations acknowledging the Crown as its titular head. The British Empire and Commonwealth together are accidents of history—a collection of nationalistic oddities and political improvisations which owes its strength to the very fact that it has been permitted to develop without plan and without direction. With each crisis in history its dissolution has been predicted, but from each crisis it has emerged stronger than before, its outward form changed, perhaps, but its integral membership still united in the desire to maintain the free institutions which have evolved under British tutelage. The common aims of these members are peace, security,. progress and political freedom, but if these interdependent objects are to be achieved there must be close and constant cooperation between the countries of the Commonwealth. At the recent Prime Ministers’ conference even the Asiatic Commonwealth countries revealed an unexpected eagerness to arrive at some compromise that would enable them to remain within the Commonwealth while satisfying the republican sentiments of certain articulate sections of their populations.

The Commonwealth of the future, whatever its form might be, will be based on .the common objects and ambitions of its members. The stumbling block at present is the manner in which the formal association is to be expressed, whether by the Crown or by some political invention as yet unascertained. There would be obvious dangers in attempting to sacrifice the unique symbolical value of the Crown in order to arrive at a formula agreeable to certain countries in which irridentists confuse the principles of dominion with domination. The Crown remains the symbol, not only of unity, but of the tradition from which the older Dominions have drawn their, strength, and if its significance as the symbol of a free association of nations is diminished there must inevitably ensue a diminution of the co-operation between the nations themselves. If there is danger of losing some parts of the Commonwealth by insistence on a formal symbol of unity, is there not greater danger of losing the Commonwealth altogether by so loosening the ties of association that the principles of the Commonwealth cease to have any meaning at all in the eyes of its members and the rest of the world? Change there must be, but it should not be away from those things which have enabled mankind to gain a new appreciation of freedom and tolerance.