Hilaly Falls

This week, troubled Egypt got its fifth Premier in five months. Out went Ahmed Naguib Hilaly Pasha and in came Hussein Sirry Pasha, a Paris-educated civil engineer. When he failed to form a cabinet, King Farouk asked Bahi Addine Barakat Pasha to try.

Almost everybody agreed that in his four months in office, honest Hilaly Pasha had tried hard, but got nowhere. Knowing that Hilaly had no political strength in Parliament, King Farouk had even suspended Parliament to give Hilaly a chance. But his fall was inevitable because he could not make a deal with the British for Egypt's No. 1 demand: sovereignty over the Sudan for King Farouk. The British, though they like Hilaly ("the best of a poor bunch"), coldly appraised his chances, and decided that he had only a minority government which could not be built up to election-winning stature even if the British gave him what he asked. So they gave him no help. He had nothing else to prop him up except the King. Tired of bearing "a burden beyond our endurance," Hilaly gave up.

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