EGYPT ANXIOUS TO RE-OPEN NEGOTIATIONS WITH BRITAIN, BUT...

Wanganui Chronicle, 24 March 1950, Page 5

EGYPT ANXIOUS TO RE-OPEN NEGOTIATIONS WITH BRITAIN, BUT...

LONDON, March 22.—The Egyptians are anxious to reopen negotiations with Britain for the settlement of long-standing differences between the two countries, but 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 anti-British feeling in Egypt is much less intense than in 1946 when a draft of an AngloEgyptian Treaty was rejected. The Egyptian Government had hoped that Labour would be returned to power in Britain, as they • 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 wartime creditors. Now, however, the Egyptians do not know whether Mr. Bevin will feel that he has sufficient Parliamentary backing to reopen negotiations. The 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 difficulties.— Special N.Z.P.A. Correspondent.