The question of Egypt still heads the world's pressing questions; over the past few weeks it has been the preoccupation of Arab and Western circles alike, and it has claimed the attention of the General Assembly in New York and of the conference of the fifteen ministers of the Atlantic Pact who met recently in the French capital.

There is no doubt that the situation which prevailed in the Middle and Near East and in a large group of the states of Western and Eastern Europe came close to sundering the bonds of the relations existing between the states of that continent on the one hand and the states of the neighboring peoples on the other. The members of the Atlantic Pact were buffeted by violent winds of differences and disputes in assessing the circumstances and the causes that drove two great Western powers, France and Britain, to attack Egypt, while Israel moved toward the Egyptian borders, sowing them with ruin and destruction, and striking from its account every meaning of humanity, and that remaining part of man which is conscience and justice.

At last wisdom prevailed: the General Assembly resolved, by the unanimity of its members, to ask the three states — Britain, France, and Israel — to withdraw their forces at once from Egyptian territory. The three states found no way but to submit; they announced their acceptance of the United Nations resolutions and set about withdrawing their soldiers

from Port Said, Port Fuad, Ismailia, and Sinai, leaving behind them the soldiers of the United Nations to occupy those places in preparation for their return to Egypt — which has won its national struggle for liberation, just as its national idea has triumphed: its faith in the right of peoples to freedom, dignity, and sovereignty.

Paris and London Agree to Withdraw from Egypt

At the beginning of last month the French and British foreign ministers, Pineau and Lloyd, announced that the French and British governments would submit to the United Nations orders requiring the withdrawal of their forces from Egypt; the two chambers likewise announced that the United Nations had taken upon itself the clearing of the Suez Canal and the restoration of navigation in it. On this basis the two governments won their votes of confidence.

The United Nations and Hungary

On December 4 the United Nations voted on the American draft resolution concerning the dispatch of international observers to Hungary to investigate the present conditions there. The foreign minister of Hungary welcomed a visit by Mr. Hammarskjöld to his country, but soon excused himself from carrying out the visit on the date fixed for it, December 16. The United Nations, however, did not accept

the Hungarian minister's point of view, and voted on another draft resolution condemning the Soviet Union and Hungary for their brutal acts against the workers and the opponents of Communism — which led the foreign minister of Hungary to withdraw from the meetings, and Russia's delegate to submit a counter draft resolution accusing the United States of America of interfering in Hungary's internal affairs.

General Wheeler in Cairo

On Saturday, December 8, General Wheeler, the American expert in navigation matters and the United Nations delegate for the work of clearing the Suez Canal, arrived in Egypt. Wheeler began his contacts with the Egyptian officials and visited the various points where the work is to be carried out. General Wheeler declared that the clearing of the Canal would take a length of time that cannot be fixed exactly.