Dear Time-Reader

Back in the days when Farouk was Egypt's king, almost any reference in TIME to Egyptian politics became an automatic candidate for the censor's scissors. TIME was banned in Egypt for half of 1948 and most issues in 1949 had stories snipped out. The cover story on Farouk (TIME, Sept. 10, 1951) was not allowed to enterEgypt and stories in subsequent issues were cut out of the magazines before TIME was released for distribution.

All this changed abruptly with last July's military coup, which resulted in Farouk's exile. General Mohammed Naguib showed himself to be just as sensitive to criticism as his predecessor, but less determined to censor criticism from abroad. After Naguib became a cover subject himself (TIME, Sept. 8), Correspondent Dave Richardson brought him a copy of the story. Entitled "A Good Man," the story told of the start of Naguib's rise to power.

The general read it during a break in an all-night meeting with his Army Committee, scribbled in his comments and returned it to Richardson. One line in the story seemed to have found Naguib's Achilles' heel. Comparing him with Turkey's Kemal Ataturk, the story read: "Naguib, a simpler man, lacks Ataturk's grasp of politics, his vision, his rousing oratory; he may also lack his iron will to rule." Naguib had crossed out these words and had scribbled in the margin: "How did you know all this? It is not true. "As if to prove his will of iron, the following day Naguib rounded up and jailed opposing politicians, requested the resignation of Premier Aly Maher and became Prime Minister himself.

About three months later, Richardson and TIME's part-time Cairo correspondent, Mohammed Wagdi, visited Naguib to present him with Ernest Hamlin Baker's original cover portrait. When Richardson reminded him of their earlier meeting, Naguib grinned broadly, bent over to autograph a copy of the TIME cover for Richardson with the words: "I am grateful to TIME forever." Naguib then told TIME's correspondents that he intended to stay in power until Egypt had reached a point where the policies he had begun would be carried on of their own momentum.

Last month Naguib's approval of TIME seemed to be spreading to his countrymen. At the four-day celebration of the first half year of his reign, Naguib announced to a Cairo crowd his plan for a three-year dictatorship. During the parade that followed, the crowds passed shop windows which featured reproductions of Baker's painting of Naguib--blown up to twice the size of the original.

A continent's width away, Johannesburg Correspondent Alexander Campbell found a somewhat less enthusiastic welcome. After gathering most of the on-the-spot research for the cover story on Kwame Nkrumah, Prime Minister of the Gold Coast (TIME, Feb. 9), he wrote us a long letter, describing his troubles with travel, the humid heat, and getting meals and hotel accommodations in the West African country.

Taxicab drivers, reported Campbell, never demanded a specific amount, but asked instead: "How much do you think it was worth?" That would be a signal for haggling over the price. After that was settled, the driver would request a five-shilling tip (even though the fare may have been only three shillings). The tropical climate had some unexpected results. Campbell found all his airmail envelopes were useless, because the flaps became stuck tight, "while my precious stickers for air-freight packets had melted into a solid block, stiff as a board and quite undetachable." Another product of the weather was the meal schedule: breakfast at 7 a.m., lunch at 2:30 p.m., and dinner, if any, at 10:30 p.m.

On one occasion, Campbell even had some trouble explaining what publication he represented. Said he: "A clip-mustached colonel who took me in hand for the purpose of introductions asked me, in four audible asides as he was taking me from person to person, 'Now, what magazine was it again?' Each time, after I had told him, I would find myself shaking hands with someone, only to hear the colonel announce : 'The correspondent of Time & Tide, donch' know.' " While we have had no word of cover portraits appearing in shop windows since the Nkrumah cover came out, it is a safe bet that TIME is now a more familiar title in the Gold Coast.

Cordially yours,

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