THE TABLET October 13th. 1956. VOL. 208. No. 6073.

THE TAB FT A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

Published as a Newspaper

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

FOUNDED IN 1840

OCTOBER 13th, 1956

NINEPENCE

Into Europe : The Special British Interest

After The Assisi Congress : A Memorable Week. By the Archbishop of Birmingham

Belloc and the Path to Rome : From the Biography by Robert Speaight

Refugees who Want to Work : A Visit to Udine. By Michael De-la-Noy

The Aberration of Genius l The Work of Frederick Soddy. By Colin Clark

Bertrand Russell as Prophet : “ Portraits from Memory.” By Christopher Hollis

Critics’ Columns : Notebook : Book Reviews : Letters : Chess

TOLLS AS GUARANTEES

\ T the Security Council, Russia and Egypt have appeared even guarantee that the Canal would remain a viable unsabotaged waterway.

as partners working hand in hand, in a way intended to demonstrate how great a fallacy it was if Britain and France ever imagined they only had Egypt to deal with. This Russian backing is associated with the general support of the Moslem countries which has been forthcoming for Colonel Nasser from the first moment when he could represent himself as the standard-bearer of the new nationalism against the old European domination. That domination is still a lively memory in all those parts of the old Ottoman Empire that became French or British mandates; and the great criticism to be made of the present British and French Cabinets is that they do not seem to understand the contemporary world of the Middle East, and do seem to imagine that military strength could settle what it can in fact no longer settle.

Mr. Selwyn Lloyd called for secret negotiations, and this marks a great improvement on the earlier suggestion that what the Security Council was to be asked to do was to give an emphatic condemnation of Egypt. The proper place for that would have been The Hague, although it is by no means certain that a judical condemnation would have been forthcoming, so carefully have the makers of rules governing the international judicial tribunal defended the high prerogatives of sovereign States.

At the Security Council everything now turns on the interpretation that is given to the fourth of M. Shepilov’s points, the establishment of appropriate forms of co-operation between Egypt and the Users of the Canal. We may take it for granted that neither the British nor the French Governments now envisage trying to establish and to maintain armed forces in the Canal Zone. There is still too much ambiguity about this, but we may, we hope, conclude that the overwhelming disadvantages of this course are realised. It would mean embarking upon a kind of war where there could well be spectacular successes at the outset, but never settled victory, only the throwing of the Moslem world into the arms of Soviet Russia, with the United States and India left uneasily between the two opposed camps. It would not

If, therefore, what will satisfy Britain and France is, in fact, something less than military occupation, that means that they are prepared to let the ultimate force in the area continue to be, as it is today, the Egyptian Army and police. The guarantees must be of a different order, the participation of non-Egyptian elements in the management of the Canal and, in particular, the payment of the dues to some other body than the Egyptian State, so that, should there be grounds for complaint, the transfer of the payments could be withheld.

Dr. Fawzi, the Egyptian Foreign Minister, can go on reiterating Egypt’s readiness to guarantee the free and fair use of the Canal to all the world, except countries with which Egypt is at war. But he must recognise that purely verbal assurances from men who have just torn up a written agreement can have no meaning. It rests with Egypt to find ways of restoring a sense of confidence that has been quite wantonly and abruptly destroyed. The trouble is that Colonel Nasser was cheered to the echo in Alexandria precisely because he had not negotiated the transfer of the Canal, but had seized it. It was that which appealed to the Egyptian populace, giving them the glorious sensation that, after having been pushed around till the memory of Egyptian man went not back to the contrary, they were at last themselves indulging in some high-handed and one-sided action. A great many young Italians got exactly the same gratification in the 1920's and 1930’s from the words and actions of Mussolini. It is a tactical mistake to try to separate demagogic dictators from the peoples who applaud them for ministering to their national pride. They should not be abused, even if they shout abuse themselves. It should just be made to become gradually clear that peoples so aggressively led, by men insensitive to the larger claims of international society, must expect to pay dearly for their bad manners, and to pay not because the world is seeking to punish them by keeping them impoverished, but simply because they have destroyed the confidence which is the essential basis both for investment and for trade.