World Events in a Month

Visits of a Political Stamp

The Emperor of Iran and the Empress Soraya visited Turkey, at an official invitation from President Celal Bayar, who had during this year paid a visit to the Iranian capital which resulted in Iran's joining the Baghdad Pact.

Political observers note that Iran and Turkey, the two members of the Iraqi pact, are the states most concerned with the affairs that occupy the other states of the pact, in view of their borders close to, or shared with, the Soviet Union.

It is worth mentioning that the Iranian monarch's visit to Turkey came at a time when the Prime Minister of France and her Foreign Minister were conducting important political talks with the leaders of Moscow, dealing with the various affairs of Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia.

In short: the Shah's visit to Turkey bore the stamp of courtesy, being a return for President Bayar's visit to Iran. But the results yielded by the contacts of Premier Mollet and Minister Pineau were not such as to suggest to international public opinion that Moscow had changed much in her traditional policy — which is to set the West before the accomplished fact in the cold war standing between the communist and capitalist blocs.

The matter that draws the attention of political observers in West and East, however, is the series of visits that Eastern and Western leaders are to pay to Moscow in the near future. The Crown Prince of Yemen will be the first Arab personality to visit the Russian capital and to conduct there important political talks with the responsible officials; President Gamal Abdel Nasser will be the second Arab statesman to pay a visit to Moscow, after his election as President of the Egyptian Republic on June 23 next; Marshal Tito will arrive in Moscow on June 3, after having paid a visit to Paris in the company of his wife and his foreign minister; and His Majesty King Faisal paid a visit to Spain, moving on afterward to Morocco, where he stayed as the guest of His Majesty the Moroccan Sultan, Sidi Mohammed ben Youssef.

And if we may draw any conclusion from Tito's visit to France, it is that the Yugoslav President discussed at length with the French rulers the main lines on which the West's policy rests with regard to the pending questions of the European continent, and that he also felt France's pulse on the possibility of Yugoslavia's undertaking a mediation to solve the problem of Algeria — something the observers consider unlikely to occur, particularly after Mr. Abu Hafa's visit to Belgrade and his request that its government offer a mediation between France and Algeria as a way to the desired peaceful solution.

But the visit around which a great question mark is drawn is the visit of the Shah of Iran and the Empress Soraya to the Soviet Union, after an exchange of sharp notes between the two states on account of Iran's joining the Baghdad Pact, and the expulsion from Iran of the Soviet military attaché at the Russian embassy on a charge of espionage.

Will the Iranian monarch succeed in convincing the Russians that the Baghdad Pact is not an instrument of aggression, and that Iran is a constant friend of the Russians? That is what the two parties will announce in a joint communiqué on the eve of the royal visit's close.

The conditions of Algeria remain anxious and disturbed, occupying the French politicians and rulers, as a result of the stubborn resistance shown by the Algerian nationalists in the face of the destructive military campaigns being carried out by the French forces in the Arab Maghreb.

The Arab states, all of them, are backing the valiant Algerian people, appealing to world public opinion for the liberation of the Arab Maghreb and its deliverance from the yoke of colonialism.

In Beirut, Damascus, and Amman, peaceful demonstrations were held in protest against France's policy in Algeria, endorsed by the responsible officials in the three capitals; and the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies and the Lebanese Prime Minister each delivered a speech announcing the confidence of the Arab states, rulers and peoples alike, in the justice of the Maghreb cause, and the determination to pursue it in international conferences and organizations.

A Jordanian military mission paid a visit to Cairo on April 28 and made contact with the responsible Egyptian officials, political and military. It studied with them the present situation in the Middle East, in the light of Mr. Hammarskjöld's recent journey in the Middle East and the conditions prevailing along the armistice lines between the Arabs and Israel. These talks ended in the conclusion of a bilateral agreement between Egypt and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, among whose most prominent lines is joint military cooperation to repel any Israeli aggression against the Arab frontiers.

Egypt recognized the government of Communist China and decided to establish political and commercial relations with her. The West was taken by surprise by this recognition, and America and Britain in particular expressed their displeasure at this step of Egypt's, while the press of the two states voiced its fears that the other Arab states would recognize Communist China.

The foreign ministers of the Arab states held a meeting in Damascus, in which they discussed the plans of the Arab states with regard to Israel, and the position of the Arab governments on Mr. Hammarskjöld's report on his recent journey in the Middle East.

Likewise, on May 27 the two prime ministers of the governments of Lebanon and Syria met at Chtaura and discussed the official Arab position toward the meetings of the Security Council to debate the results of Mr. Hammarskjöld's talks in the capitals of the Arab states and Israel; and it was decided that Dr. Fouad Ammoun, Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, should travel to New York to join the representatives of the Arab states at the meeting of the international Security Council.

On May 28, 1956, His Excellency President Shukri al-Quwatli arrived in Amman, coming from Damascus, on an official visit to the Jordanian Kingdom, accompanied by a Syrian military mission headed by General Shawkat Shuqayr, Chief of the General Staff of the Syrian Army.

As for the results of this visit, they will be of the utmost importance on the Arab political plane.

On May 21, 1956, the United States of America carried out the test of a hydrogen bomb in the Bikini islands, which the observers and the pressmen who were permitted to watch the tests described as the greatest test in the history of hydrogen bombs; its effect was very great indeed.

And on the night of May 27–28, the observatories of Tokyo recorded tremors coming from Bikini, thought to be the result of the test of a second American bomb of this kind.

As in Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Malaya, and Singapore, so too in Cyprus: the people of this little island demand deliverance from Britain at any price. The demonstrations go on, the search campaigns continue, and the Cypriots — "it's a goat, even if it flies" — demand independence. Will Harding permit it?