EGYPTIAN DEBATE

Hokitika Guardian, 13 December 1929, Page 5

EGYPTIAN DEBATE

(British Official Wireless). (Received this day at noon.) RUGBY, December 11. In the House oi' Lords, Lord Thomson in reply to Lord Lloyd after pointing out that the White Paper containing exchange of notes between Egypt and Britain could not he regarded as a Draft Treaty, said the whole purpose of the 1922 declaration was to declare Egypt a Sovereign state, subject to certain reservations The Government stood by that declaration in regard to foreign intervention in Egypt. As to the risk to securtiy of imperial communication the- Government had throughout paid the most scrupulous attention to the opinion of their military expert. He denied the suggestion that the removal of British troops to the east of meridian 32, involved stationing them in the desert. On the contrary, there were places in that area which were health resorts.

Under the proposals it was provided that if the Egyptian Government did not maintain law and order, and if the lives and property of foreigners were jeopardised by its neglect, the treaty would he contravened, and he questioned the interpretation that it would in such cases he necessary to go to Geneva for a ruling. That point could, however, he carefully studied. The vital interests of the British Empire, represented as they were by the four reserved points of 1922, were met by proposals that the canal, as a canal, was as safe as it had ever been and probably safer. ,

The lives of foreigners would he just as well protected as under the present system, and the Treaty of Alliance with Egypt would safeguard that country against foreign aggression, and British rights were entirely established in regard to foreign intervention. 1 he Sudan question had been met in the only lair and reasonable way which could give absolutely satisfaction to its Governor-General.