Good News

After the humiliation of Geneva, the West badly needed the tonic of a diplomatic success. Just such a pick-me-up came last week from the Middle East. First Britain and Egypt settled their decades-old squabble over control of the Suez Canal Zone. Their agreement, on so emotional an issue, represented statesman-like restraint on both sides, and skillful conciliation by the U.S.

East of Suez, in Iran, the three-year-old oil dispute--which began with tense anti-Western riots in the streets--also was on the way to ending amicably. The result was that Premier Fazlollah Zahedi felt free to proclaim openly his sympathy with the West. The diplomacy of U.S. Ambassador Loy Henderson, and the business savvy of Special Adviser Herbert Hoover Jr. had helped bring this about.

At the other end of the Arab world, France's new Premier Pierre Mendes-France made a generous attempt to conciliate Arab nationalists in Tunisia before conditions got worse. On the north shore of the Mediterranean, Yugoslavia and Italy seemed about to get together peacefully on the touchy subject of Trieste.

All these were diplomatic negotiations that did not require sitting down with Moscow and Peking. The success of each gave promise of solidifying the friendly relationships of nations outside the Iron Curtain, and therefore was a significant contribution to the cold war.

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