HC Deb 27 March 1950 vol 473 c41
59. Mr. de Chair

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what formal request he has received from the new Wafd Government of Egypt for the opening of negotiations to revise the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 concluded when the Wafd were last in power; and whether he will take advantage of the Wafd's return to power to negotiate a new treaty in the same cordial spirit as the old, based on mutual respect for the sovereign rights of each Power while at the same time recognising their strategic interdependence.

Mr. Ernest Davies

During his recent visit to Cairo my right hon. Friend found the leaders of the newly appointed Egyptian Government in full accord with His Majesty's Government that a broad settlement of outstanding differences between our two countries was greatly to be desired. We are in friendly touch with the Egyptian Government, but have not reached the stage of formal interchanges.

Mr. de Chair

In approaching these matters would His Majesty's Government try to convince the Egyptians that if it is possible for us to have an American bombing base in East Anglia without any sense of infringement of our national sovereignty, it should be quite possible for them to regard a base in the desert near the canal zone as an adjunct to, and not an infringement of, their own national sovereignty?

Mr. Davies

That goes rather wide of the Question. I do not feel it can be answered by Question and answer.