Defiance for Naguib

Half a hundred bigwigs of Egypt's Wafd Party sat around the highceilinged, marble-floored reception room in the ornate mansion of their boss, Mustafa el Nahas, sipped Turkish coffee and waited. Inside the library, old Nahas and the party's other top bosses were trying to decide whether to bow down to Egypt's Strongman Mohammed Naguib or to defy him. Their decision might affect the fate of Naguib's well-intentioned, energetic reform movement, and the future of Egypt.

"Zeezee" & "Safsaf." The Wafd was once the greatest political force in Egypt with a wide following among the people, to whom it promised independence from Britain and a better life. But over the years it grew deeply corrupt. Nahas himself was once a respected leader. The son of fellaheen, he came from Egypt's soil. He was a devoted servant of the people, and he lived simply even after he became Premier. Then in 1936 he took as his wife the lovely, ambitious daughter of a landowner. Her name was Zeinab, but Nahas called her "Zeezee." She called him "Safsaf." She was 24, he 60.

Zeezee did not like the simple life. She bought an elaborate beige villa in Cairo's exclusive Garden City. She bought land, jewels, fancy clothes. Wafd ministers who refused her demands for illegal import licenses were fired; others quit. She and her great & good friend, fat Fuad Serag el Din, the Wafd's secretary general, were frequently seen together in public, made profitable deals in private.

Recently Cairo's crusading newspaper Akhbar el Yom printed a transcript of tapped phone talks that showed how she operated. The time of the talks: a few days after the Naguib coup. Zeezee, then in Switzerland, called Serag el Din in Cairo and ordered him to maneuver a chosen candidate into the Regency Council which Naguib was setting up. "Hader" (At your service), said Serag el Din. Then she called her husband, repeated her instructions. "At your order," replied Nahas meekly. As an afterthought, she told him to send her some more Swiss francs because she had already spent 10,000 Egyptian pounds ($28,000) on her vacation.

Last month Naguib's government issued a law asking all political parties to clean house, file a detailed statement of their finances. Naguib himself swore that it would be upheld. Last week his government issued a direct ultimatum to the Wafd: Nahas must quit, or the Wafd will be outlawed by Oct. 8.

"God & the People." In the library, Nahas and his cronies talked on & on about Naguib's threat. Finally the library door burst open and Nahas came out. His waiting followers jumped from their chairs and shouted: "No leader but Nahas!" till the tapestried walls shook. The feeble old man, his face streaming tears, was led by aides to the top of a sweeping marble staircase. Then, in a near-hysterical shriek, he gave his answer and threw down the gauntlet to Egypt's strongman: he was determined to stay on as the Wafd's leader. "God and the confidence of the Egyptian people in me," he cried, "are the source of my strength . . ."

Naguib will have to move carefully against Nahas: many Egyptians still think of the old man as a hero. This week Naguib took his case to the people. He started on a three-day whistle-stop tour through small towns where Nahas' hold had always been greatest. The reception for Naguib exceeded anything reporters in Egypt had ever seen. Fellaheen along the Nile streamed out of the fields, shouting that Naguib is the "Savior of Egypt, Savior of the Farmers, Gift of Allah." Hundreds of villagers crowded in front of Naguib's Chevrolet convertible and tried to climb in to hug him. The police had to use rifle butts to keep him from being loved to death. After 50 miles of this, the car was battered and scratched, one door almost ripped off.

Naguib said nothing about Nahas and the Wafd, but the purpose of his tour was plain. Said a veteran Egyptian political reporter: "Nahas is finished."

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