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.
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