TREATY WITH EGYPT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 846, 14 December 1929, Page 11

TREATY WITH EGYPT

REASSURING OPINION OF “THE TIMES” LABOUR POLICY NOT NEW British Official Wireless Reed. Noon. RUGBY, Fridav. The proposals for an Anglo-Egyptian Treaty were discussed in the House of Lords on Wednesday. “The Times,’* in a leading article, says the critics of the proposed treaty should be reassured by Lord Thomson’s statement in the House of Lords, that if all responsibility for law and order had passed wholly into the hands of the Egyptian Government. and the lives and property of foreigners were jeopardised by the neglect of that Government, then it would have contravened the treaty, and the British Government would be obliged themselves to ensure that the dispensations of the treaty were properly carried out. “It must be read in conjunction with Lord Thomson’s other definite announcement that the whole of the paragraph in the 1922 declaration in regard to foreign intervention stood unmodified. The special relationship between Great Britain and Egypt is therefore not to be called into question, and it is established beyond all doubt that his Majesty’s Government will continue to regard as an unfriendly act any attempt at interference in the affairs of Egypt by another Power.” “The Times” welcomes Earl Grey's deprecation of Lord Lloyds* “false and mischievous analogy between Egypt and India,” and adds: “It is a simple fact that the Egyptian policy of Mr. Ramsay MacDonald’s Administration is in direct line of descent from that of his predecessors. There are certain obvious points in the draff treaty to which exception can rightly be taken, and others on which judg ment must be suspended, but in a general way the new treaty represents an attempt to establish Anglo Egyptian relations upon the terms foreshadowed long ago by Lord Cromer, and after the war strongly recommended by the Milner mission. Owing to pressure of work, the House of Commons will not adjourn until Christmas Eve, and on that davit is expected the Conservatives will raise debates on the Government policy regarding Egypt and the Singa pore naval base.