Evening star., 1952-07-27
Kings Custer
Seen as Blow
AtCorruption
BY WiIIiom Shade

by WlIIl0m Sh0oe
The dwindling ranks Of play
boy kings mourned another cas-.
nalty this week end. King Far.
ouk Of Egypt. whose, fabulous
and amorouS carryingS-on across
the face Of Europe have brought
wry smiles to readers of most
Of the worlds newspapers, was
reported yesterday to have alb.
dicated three days after a mill
tary coup had stripped his hand.
picked government of its power.
Yesterdays flight by King
Farouk followed Wednesdays
lightning coup by Maj. Gen. Mo-
manned Naguib Bey. identified
with a discontented younger ON
Ger group in the Egyptian army
that was apparently fed up with
the corruption in top layers Of
the government. both civil and
military.
Apparently Naguib has no
plans to change Egypt's foreign
relations. He has assured for
eigners they will not be per.
secuted. And he has called upon
one of Farouk'S own choices for
Premier. Ally Maher PaSha, to
take over the political reinS.
Maher Pasha Is on friendly
terms with the nationalistic
Wafd party. and can be expected
to reverse the trend toward mod
Grafton which Farouk had
started.
Three Forces at Work
In general there seem to be
three main forces at work in
Egypt. First. there has been the
King and his palace guard"
which includes some of the top
army people. The King still
has great prestige with the back
ward common people. Second,
there is the bitter group in the
army-preSumably the majority
which rode to power last week
behind General Naguib. Third,
there is the Wafdist party, which
has had parliamentary major
ity for some time, but does not
have final authority.
Although these three forces
have their internal disagree
ments, they are all agreed that
the British should leave the Suez
to Egyptian control. They also
believe that Egypt would more
closely represent the will of the
people in neighboring Sudan,
where a British Governor Cen
eral still is in charge.
ReSentments of nationalists
against the British-promoted
by the Wafdists-have been
simmering ever since the Cairo
riots early this year. All Egyp-
tianS have been pressing Great
Britain to leave the Suez Canal
and the Sudan before the ex-
piration Of the Anglo Egyptian
treaty in 1856.
Wofds in Forefront
Leading the Nationalist senti-
ment in a white-hot campaign
against the British had been
the Wafdist party. This spring
King Farouk. in a move toward
moderation which was generally
approved outside Egypt, re-
moved the Wafdist premier and
set up succession of progress
sively less nationalistic pre-
mierS.
The army. meanwhile, had
stood behind King Farouk in
this imposed trend of concilia-
tion with the British. When
General Naguib took over We'd
nesday, however, he deposed the
top army commanders who had
supported the King. He dis
claimed any interest in Egypt's
political future, but was out
spoken in his criticism of the
corruption of the Egyptian
government and the army. The
forced abdication =, of Farouk
confirms that he considered the
pudgy King to be one of the
chief squanderers of Egypt's
substance while the people lived
in poverty.
Naguib's statements have
called for a return to "constitu-
tional government" This was
an obvious reference to Farouk's
recent order to dissolve the Par
lament, set up in 1923. 1t was
through this parliament that
the Wafd party had gained it's
strength. 1t claimed to repre-
sent the people. and generally
acted to carry out the peoples
will until the King took his
sudden active interest in Egyp-
tian governmental affairs.
Outraged at Corruption
The army has been known
to be dissatisfied with corrup-
ton in the military for several
years. General Naguib blames
corruption for the miserable
showing Of the Egyptians in the
war against Palestine five years
ago.
Some observers believe that
the reason for the Army's tardi-
ness in coming in to quell the
Cairo riots last January was
that Farouk's grip on the army
had been loosened by his toler-
ance Of graft among the top
military men. They said he
couldn't depend on the army
to quell the mob, that he feared
they might side with it instead.
Whether General Naguib will
be able to carry out his appar-
ent intention to keep out of
foreign affairs is a matter of
speculation on all sides. In a
parallel coup in Syria, the mil
itary man who took over, Col
onel Adib Shishakly. started out
by keeping hands of Of politics
But in the end he found him
self disagreeing with the pre-