War & Death

Before the jampacked Chamber of Deputies in Cairo's Parliament building rose Egypt's Premier Dr. Ahmed Maher Pasha. Five years ago he had urged Egypt to declare war on the Axis. Now he read the royal declaration of war he had drafted (at the behest of the Big Three--see INTERNATIONAL) with King Farouk. Then the portly, fun-loving Premier stepped briskly to the waiting Senate to read it.

In the pillared Pharaonic Hall a group of young men saluted respectfully. The Premier paused to shake hands. Suddenly a youth in a black shirt and red tie whipped out a pistol, fired point blank at Maher Pasha. The Premier dropped. Tears ran down his cheeks. Said he: "I'm finished." Thus death, as it must to all men, came last week to Ahmed Maher Pasha, 56.

His assassin, a lean, pale, 26-year-old Egyptian lawyer named Mahmud Issawi, submitted impassively to arrest. To the police he arrogantly proclaimed the pro-Naziism which had earned him long internment. He had been released last Autumn--by order of Maher Pasha.

Egypt mourned its warmhearted, wisecracking leader. Named by the shocked King as New Premier was Maher Pasha's Foreign Minister, tightlipped, businesslike Mahmoud Fahmy El Nokrashy Pasha.

Turkey and Syria also declared war on Germany and Japan. The Turkish deputies carefully dated their declaration as of the Big Three's deadline, March 1.

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