threatens these talks, or will give a clear picture of the extent of the East's and the West's desire to achieve a long-lasting world peace.

The Egyptian elections, the open-ing of the new Egyptian parlia-ment, and the speech of President Gamal Abdel Nasser come among the international events that give promise of an easing of the acute crises which have long dominated Europe and the Middle East. The Egyptian President's speech, in the whole of its domestic and foreign lines, came as a first step toward closer cooperation with the Western powers, which perceived in the words of President Abdel Nasser a concern for Egypt's freedom and indepen-dence, far removed from all that is said about Egypt's leaning toward East or West. Thus the speech, on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the Revolution and the opening of parliament, stands as eloquent testimony to the wisdom of Egyptian policy at home, and to Egypt's adherence to what it had previously declared regarding its commitments abroad.

This said, were it not for the events of the Imamate of Oman and Muscat in the Arabian Peninsula, one could say that the Middle East, after the attack on Egypt, is enjoying a greater mea-sure of stability and tranquility. If these events prove anything, it is the extent to which British and American policy has fallen back from its common aims in the Middle East. And it is precisely here that the point of difference

begins, in form or in substance, between the two great powers.

It remains to point to the historic event which the Tunisian Constituent Assembly inscribed in the history of modern Tunisia: its meeting on the evening of

Thursday, July 25, 1957, its proclamation of the abolition of the monarchy and the estab-lishment of the republic, and the election of President Habib Bourguiba as the first President of the new Tunisian Republic.