Memorandum, State Department Summary of Telegrams

5. OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE DECLASSIFITD WASHINGTON 3-402 E.O. 12065, Guidelines, Sec. March 4-9-8 6, 1932 February 4, 1952 State By Dept. DEB NLT, DatSECRET SECURITY INFORMA TION SUMMARY OF TELEGRAMS EGYPT We have informed our Embassies in London and Cairo that we are encouraged by the willingness of the British to negotiate with the Egyptians as soon as the time is ripe and to start ne- - gotiations with a conciliatory declaration if such a declaration appeared de- - sirable. We agree that the new Egyptian Government is in the best position to decide when negotiations should start, but we believe that once this decision is taken things should move fast and the UK should be ready to start negotiations on all outstanding questions within a few days. With regard to the issues involved, we are now more convinced than ever that the Egyptians will have to receive something significant on both the question of the evacuation of British forces and that of the unity of the Nile Valley under the Egyptian Crown. Regarding evacua- tion, we think the UK will have to agree to fix a definite date within a rela- tively short period in which British troops (as opposed to Middle East Command troops) will have to leave. In return for this we believe the Egyptians would be prepared to go a long way towards the defense proposals. The size of the British contingent under the Middle East Command in peace- time will, we think, have to be within some numerical ceiling to be agreed between Egypt and the Supreme Allied Commander for the Middle East. At the present time a useful element in discussions on the defense proposals might be the early and well publicized start of the "evacuation" of British forces. The number withdrawn now could, of course, be small. With reference to the Sudan, we note that the US, UK and French Ambassadors in Cairo, King Farouk and members of the Royal Cabinet, the Prime Minister and other leading Egyptians all agree that the key to a long-term resolution of the dispute lies in early recognition of Farouk as "King of Sudan". On this evidence we believe that the US, UK, France and Turkey should be prepared to accord Farouk this recognition within the framework of self-determination for the Sudanese people. Meanwhile Ambassador Caffery comments from Cairo that, although it is not yet possible to say that the Egyptian experiment in SECRET SECURITY INFORMA TION