Egyptian Crisis and Middle East Defense

Report Outline
Dangers for West in Anglo-Egyptian Dispute
Erosion of British Power in Egypt
Proposed Allied Defense Command in Middle East

Dangers for West in Anglo-Egyptian Dispute

New Government After Anti-British Riots

Events in egypt during the last weekend may have opened the way for a new approach to solution of both the Anglo-Egyptian conflict and the larger conflict between Middle Eastern nationalism and security needs of the West of which it is a part.

Dismissal of the Wafd government of Nahas Pasha by King Farouk, Jan. 27, and his appointment of Aly Maher Pasha to head a new cabinet, was the first major political break in the rapidly-worsening situation which grew out of Egypt's efforts to assume full control of the Suez Canal and to force withdrawal of British military forces from the Canal zone.

The king's action was prompted by the imperative need to restore public order and internal stability after the large-scale rioting in Cairo which followed a bloody clash between Egyptian police and British troops in the Canal zone. It had the additional effect of heading off a planned break in diplomatic relations with Great Britain, which, if carried out, might permanently have closed the door to a negotiated settlement.