EGYPT'S ATTITUDE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27346, 23 March 1950, Page 7

EGYPT'S ATTITUDE

Settlement With Britain

Eager For Negotiations NZPA Special Correspondent

Rec. 8 p.m. LONDON, Mar. 22. Egyptians are anxious to reopen negotiations with Britain , for the settlement of long-standing differences between the two countries, but they are doubtful whether the British Government’s narrow parliamentary majority will enable it to do this, says the Cairo correspondent of the Manchester Guardian. The correspondent says that anti-British feeling in Egypt is much less intense than in 1946, when the draft Anglo-Egyptian Treaty was rejected. The Egyptian Government had hoped that Labour would be returned to power in Britain, as' it considered Mr Ernest Bevin likely to be more friendly to them than Mr Churchill. They also disliked Mr Churchill’s campaign to reduce the sterling balances of Britain’s war-time creditors. Now, however, Egyptians do not know whether Mr Bevin will feel that he has sufficient parliamentary backing to reopen negotiations. Egyptians have not been slow to realise the delicate political issues in Britain, adds the correspondent. One Cairo cartoonist recently depicted Nahas Pasha, the Egyptian Prime Minister, offering some of his very large majority to Mr Attlee to help him out of his difficulties.