T f tE TABLET February 8th, 1958. VOL. 211, No. 6142

THE" r A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

Published as a Newspaper

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

FOUNDED IN 1840

FEBRUARY 8th, 1958

NINEPENCE

Lourdes After a Hundred Years: The Glory and the shadow

Nearing the Italian Election: Christian Democrat Prospects. By Gunnar Kumlien Egypt and Syria United: Mehemet A ll’s Dream Come True. By Bela Menczer Battle of the Books: In the Bookshops of East Berlin. By Dermot J. T. Englefield

Joseph von Eichendorff: A Centenary Appreciation. By Eugen Gurster

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

THE EGYPTIAN EMPIRE

pR E S ID EN T NASSER, having established his control of the Suez Canal, is losing no time in telling all the Arabs that he must also control the land routes by which Middle Eastern oil is conveyed. It is a very one-sided union which Syria has accepted, and which is offered now to all the Arab States. All the political parties in Syria have been dissolved. The combination of Egypt and Syria is to be ruled by President Nasser from Cairo, with Egypt providing three-quarters of the members of a single Parliament, and with Damascus relegated to the status of a provincial capital. Syrian representatives abroad are to be withdrawn.

The prompt announcement of the adhesion of the Yemen to the new union, followed though it was by some show of reluctance on the part of the Crown Prince of the Yemen to present himself in Cairo, was intended to add conviction to President Nasser’s assurance that monarchies could become federal members of the union which he is to lead. The constitutional structure is more than a little difficult to envisage, however, and President Nasser cannot be surprised if the Arab kings have already concluded that his real purpose is to overturn their thrones as speedily as possible, beginning with the throne of Jordan, and making their countries republics which can then join the union in which he is the overlord. The King of Jordan is used to hearing Cairo Radio saying in barely veiled terms that he must expect when the day comes to be murdered as his grandfather was. All the appeal from Cairo is to the mobs, not to the rulers, in the other Arab States.

The first sequel to the announcement that Yemen has joined the union may well be the further announcement that the example has been followed by the smaller Sheikdoms of the Persian Gulf, with a representative of Bahrein among those making the journey to Cairo. These are separated from Egypt by the great distances of Saudi Arabia ; but the distances in Jordan are both shorter and crossed by roads, and roads that lead to Syria. The strip of Israeli territory that goes down to the Gulf of Aqaba will acquire a significance in that part of the world comparable to the Polish corridor in pre-war Europe, cutting the lines of communication in the new Greater Arab State. The Kingdom of Cyprus ?

In all the anxious thought that has been given to the future of Cyprus, the spirit of the age has tended to exclude one possible solution. Until the Turks overran it in 1573 Cyprui had been a kingdom for over four hundred years, often in some dependent relationship. The device of monarchy has often been invaluable, when it has been thought important to prevent the absorption of some particular strategically placed territory. The creation of the kingdom of Belgium, to keep the Low Countries from France, and to make two races live side by side in harmony, is a capital example of the successful introduction of constitutional monarchy.

The Greek Cypriots would be united to Greece dynastically but not politically if the King of Greece became King of Cyprus, on the understanding that the Greek Government had nothing to say, and that through his representative he ruled with a Turkish Cypriot as well as a Greek Cypriot chief advisor, and gave the Turkish Cypriots a special position. The Greeks have had a way of driving out their kings, and the crown of Cyprus would have to be quite separate from the crown of Greece, as the crown of England was from that of Scotland when James I united them, and as Great Britain was from the Electorate of Hanover when George I came. Alternatively there might be other members of the Greek Royal family, and of course the Greek Orthodox Church,'to whom a revived throne could go.

As long as the British Government’s approach was mainly a Colonial Office approach, such a solution was