EGYPT: Invitation in Reverse

AMERICA WILL CHANGE HER POLICY, said an eight-column head in Cairo’s official newspaper Al Gumhuria. Other Egyptian papers burbled in delight over “indications” of a Washington turnabout. The U.S., it was reported, had resumed its Egyptian aid program, was again buying Egyptian cotton, had released $3,000,000 of Egypt’s frozen funds, had agreed to a special shipment of Salk polio vaccine—was, in short, about to go all out for Nasser. “It’s a great victory for Gamal,” said a Cairo news vendor.

Actually, the U.S. was doing nothing about Egypt that it had not been doing all along. The touted resumption of American aid was merely the continued honoring of commitments made before Suez. CARE negotiations remained stalled, as they had been. The U.S. has never stopped buying Egyptian cotton, or releasing in installments the frozen funds (originally about $40 million), chiefly for the expenses of the Egyptian embassy in Washington and the Egyptian U.N. delegation. What was significant in the sudden rush of wishful Egyptian thinking was that Gamal Abdel Nasser, though he had just accepted a $175 million Soviet loan, seemed not entirely satisfied with Egypt’s growing dependence on Russia and anxious to develop other friends.

In recent weeks Cairo has been alive with indignation over shipments of Russian wheat so rotten that it turned the bread green, of Communist Chinese tea so full of impurities that it had to be thrown away. The flood of Russian literature that pours into Egypt these days has left the average Egyptian totally unmoved; most of it is sold by weight for wrapping papers. Cairo housewives particularly like a magazine called Russia Today for wrapping bananas. “It doesn’t tear so easily,” said one. Nearly every machine in Egypt is Western-made, and for lack of spare parts and the money to buy them, many are on the verge of breakdown. Spare parts are urgently needed for dredges and other equipment used to keep the Suez Canal operating. Lubricating oil is so scarce that gas-station operators supply only favorite customers. Because of Nasser’s controls, meat prices are soaring, and butter, tea and coffee are scarce. Many Cairo restaurants refuse to serve cabob because they cannot sell it for a profit. “Nasser,” said one observer last week, “is facing an economic crisis that compares with the military crisis he faced last year.”

The U.S. was not going to be cross-ruffed into matching Russia in a bid for Nasser’s favor. But many U.S. observers concede that Nasser seems securely in power, and likely to be in power for a long time to come. To do nothing might mean to let Egypt go to Russia by default. The U.S. has always made it clear that it will release the frozen funds only when and if Nasser gives some clear and substantive evidence of good faith. The emphasis was on substantive—promises would not be enough.