Deadlock in Cairo

The omens for diplomatic success were far from promising as the five-nation Menzies committee landed in Cairo. Within hours of arrival. Nasser's government locked up a fourth British businessman on charges of spying against Egypt. The British embassy announced that 1,400 nationals, including half its staff's dependents, had been evacuated from Egypt "because of the present grave situation." The Orient Line shifted three liners from the Suez route to sail the long way around the Cape of Good Hope. In a saber-rattling speech that old Socialist, France's Foreign Minister Christian Pineau, compared Nasser to Hitler and demanded "a very clear will to use force."

The Presidential Car. Nasser himself was courteous and smiling when the committee came to his modest Nileside office --"probably the only office in Cairo," said a reporter, "without a picture of Nasser." He seated his guests--Menzies, U.S. Career Ambassador Loy Henderson, Sweden's Foreign Minister Osten Unden, Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Gholi Ardalan and Ethiopia's Foreign Minister Ato Aklilu Abte Wold--in armchairs round a blond mahogany table. To make the give-and-take as easy as possible, the group agreed to do without stenographers and to keep an absolute news blackout. Then Menzies, a tough Tory of the Churchillian school, launched into an explanation of the Dulles plan: let Egypt own the canal company but submit its operation to international control. When he and the com mittee left 70 minutes later, reporters asked how he felt. "Don't I look happy?" he countered. "As you see, I'm using the President's car. A good sign."

But next morning Nasser's newspaper Al Gumhuria called Dulles' proposed internationalization "a 1956 term for piracy." At the meeting that evening Nasser took just 40 minutes to reject the plan, as he had said he would. He was candid, businesslike. "What is your problem?" he asked. "Freedom of navigation? I'm ready to discuss that. Tolls? I'm ready to discuss that. The British press charges I'm trying to build an empire? We can discuss that too if you want--but I will not discuss Egyptian sovereignty.

"Perhaps," Nasser continued, "you would like to discuss British fears that I'm going to cut their lifeline of empire? If I did that, it would mean war with Britain. Do you think I'm crazy enough to do that? And if I was so crazy how could the international board that you propose prevent me from doing it in any case?"

Menzies, unwilling to go beyond his mandate "to present and explain," argued only that Nasser would lose no sovereignty by delegating canal control to an international body. The Egyptian dictator was adamant. This turned out to be the decisive meeting. It lasted 100 minutes.

Under the Banyans. On Wednesday, as the British and French foreign ministers spelled out their policies at a NATO council meeting in Paris, the Suez committee sent Iran's Ali Ardalan to make another pitch to Nasser. "A lovely talk," was all the Iranian would say afterward. At his press conference in Washington President Eisenhower said: "The U.S. is committed to a peaceful solution of this [Suez] problem." When the Cairo negotiators met a fourth time, they debated 105 minutes before breaking up in futility. Menzies was reportedly refusing to talk about any Nasser counterproposals. Afterwards Nasser entertained the committee at a banquet in the lush tropical gardens of one of the ex-royal family's palaces. To the dismay of burly Bob Menzies, Australia's leading wine connoisseur, Moslem Nasser served only soft drinks with the dinner. (Soon he was not to care; like so many visitors to Egypt, Menzies came down with a case of "gyppy tummy.")

By Thursday all capitals had learned that the Cairo talks had reached an impasse. While the first of 2,500 French paratroopers and airmen disembarked in Cyprus, Sir Anthony Eden met with his Cabinet in London, summoned Parliament to a special sitting. Nasser told a visitor that the situation made him feel like Samson about to pull down the pillars. On Friday, the Moslem day of rest, he went off to sun with his family on a beach. That evening a Menzies press officer told newsmen that "the talks have come to a complete end," that the committee was going home without further palaver. At the same time word leaked that committee members were bitterly angry at President Eisenhower for promising a "peaceful solution" in Suez at the exact moment when the committee thought the threat of force might have influenced Nasser.

Search for Compromise. That same day a dramatic switch took place in London. The British government began talking about taking the Suez dispute to the U.N. In Washington Secretary Dulles, though cool to a plan that could be so easily snarled by a Russian veto or by an endless debate, indicated that he might accept it as a device for keeping "moral pressure" on the Egyptian dictator. But the search for some formula that might break the deadlock went feverishly on in Washington, where, without bothering about the sacred protocol of presenting credentials, France's newly arrived Ambassador Herve Alphand rushed from the airport to State Department consultations with Dulles. In Cairo the U.S.'s Loy Henderson, reportedly with the support of the Iranian and Ethiopian representatives, pressed Menzies for one more try at compromise with Nasser. After a heart searching discussion the committee agreed to ask Nasser for one more session. A new press officer announced that "the discussions have not yet reached their final stage and are still going on."

On the last day Menzies led his committee back into Nasser's office for a final 25-minute talk. Nothing changed. After handshakes all around and a smiling goodbye from Nasser, Menzies emerged to tell newsmen: "A communique will be issued which will not tell you anything besides the fact that the discussions have ended. Copies of the documents will be issued, and you will know as much as I know." With that the Prime Minister ordered his plane, flew back to report to Sir Anthony Eden in London, where the next phase of the Suez crisis began.

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