Nahas & Old Friend

Britain still watched Egypt anxiously, but last week she felt reassured. There had been some bad moments. When Rommel took Matruh, the back streets of polyglot Cairo chattered with rumors, hissed with opportunistic plans. Toasts to the Axis rang behind closed doors. Rich Italian matrons of Alexandria loaded themselves with cakes and bonbons, piled into cars and rushed off to suburban Mex, which they understood had already been entered by triumphant troops of II Duce. Mex was full of grinning Australians. The matrons jettisoned their gifts and went home.

Far from disturbing was the political situation which exploded in the midst of Rommel's advance. Premier Mustafa El Nahas Pasha and his old friend and Finance Minister, Makram Ebeid Pasha, broke up in a thunderous row.

Nahas and Makram, No. 1 and No. 2 men in the Wafd Party which dominates Egypt, had loved each other for 20 years. The cause of their quarrel was profound. Shrewd, 66-year-old Nahas felt that he needed to concentrate authority in one hand--his own--to get his country through the impending crisis. So he took back from Finance Minister Makram certain powers which he had once bestowed. Makram, hurt, became so obstreperous that Nahas kicked him out of his job.

People leaped to the conclusion that the upheaval spelled new anguish for the British. They thought Makram might join anti-Nahas groups. They thought of an Egyptian convulsion right at the moment Rommel was eating his way toward the Nile.

But by last week the most serious result was a minuscule opposition bloc which Makram set up within the Wafd Party. Nahas was still sitting on the lid, unshaken, still carrying out a policy of 1) maintaining the integrity and independence of Egypt and 2) sticking to the letter and spirit of the cordial Anglo-Egyptian Alliance. Last week, Nahas Pasha's Egypt maintained a sphinxlike calm.

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