Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-03-24
| etters to The Star

scraWled ilegibly in Latin and signed by
physician. We may not know an aspi-
rim tablet from penicillin, nor do we
know when we are paying for penicillin
and getting aspirin! Knowing that
drugs are often expensive, we naturally
seek out the druggist who advertises
low prices, assuming that these saw
ings will be carried into the prescrip-
ton department. From then on we
are sitting ducks" so to Speak-abso-
lutely at the mercy of druggist who
has spent half the day selling vitamins
at cost and cleansing tissues at below
cost and who must pay the rent some
how.
Fair trade laws tend to discourage
"bait advertising" and encourage the
dealer to make fair and reasonable
profit on everything, which is as it
Snouio De' Victim.
Violence Along the Suez
The Star Of March 16 published a
three-line dispatch reporting the
shooting Of two British soldiers in the
Suez Canal Zone. This is but one
more account Of long series of the
kind of senseless violence which char
acterizes the Zone under present con-
ditionS. Egyptian soldiers are shot;
Egyptian civilians are maltreated or
killed: British soldiers are shot :.
This brief dispatch was an after
math of an incident which took place
on March II and. since The Star did
not carry an account Of it, think
you may be interested to know the
details, as they were reported in the
Egyptian Mail, Cairo English language
newspaper, on March IL.
First 1t. Farid HasSan NADIA was In
charge Of an Egyptian Police outpost
at Fanara. He received complaint
from British authorities that some
telephone wire. belonging to the British
army. had been stolen by unknown
persons near Fayid. He borrowed a
car and set out. with a driver, to in
vestigate the theft. On his way, he
came upon two British soldiers, one in
uniform and the other in civilian
clothes. fighting with two Egyptian
workers. He stopped and questioned the
group. The British soldiers accused
the Egyptians Of attempting to enter
a restricted area without military
passes. The workers. however, produced
passes. and 1t. NADIA tried to explain
the true situation to the British SOL
diers. Whereupon one of them struck
him in the face. Lit. NADIA returned
the blow.
This was the beginning. 1t. NADIA
ordered the Egyptian workers to get
into his car. and tried to follow them,
but one Of the British soldiers fired
two shots. killing the lieutenant in
cold blood. An official investigation
followed. Egyptian authorities report
ed that 1t. NADIA had been unarmed,
that his body had been dragged by
the two British soldiers to hospital,
that his wallet was missing. The Brit
ish authorities reported that the Brit
iSh soldiers were under the influence
Of morphine injections, and that one
OF them had a bullet wound in his
thigh.
Thus the full story is revealed. An
Egyptian officer was killed the affair
was apparently ignored by the press
outside his own country. The shooting
Of British soldiers followed-it did get
into dispatches which reached the press
outside Egypt. (This Is not an isolated
instance; it has happened so frequently
that it seems to follow a pattern)
Meantime, the basic reasons for these
never-ending acts of violence continue
to exist. In prolonged discussions and
negotiations. the major problems in
volved in the evacuation by the British
OF the Suez Canal Zone have been mu-
tually agreed upon. Only minor ques-
tions remain, which except for the
stubbornness of empire mentality,
might quickly and easily be solved.
How many British soldiers must die?
How many Egyptians-soldiers and
civilians-must perish before there is
an end to it all?
NJ. Samir Ahmed.
Press attache. Embassy of Egypt.