874.00/4–2254: Telegram
No. 1324
The Secretary of
State to the Department of
State1
Secto 4. After lunch April 22, I mentioned to Eden our desire to move on economic aid to Egypt which I recalled we had deferred for months at his request. Apart from technical consideration of approaching end of our fiscal year and hence availability funds, I said I believed such action by US, if publicly supported by UK and [Page 2264] timed with reopening UK–Egyptian negotiations on Suez, should have favorable effect on negotiations.
Eden was non-committal but did not argue against my thesis. He said Egyptians had recently arrested an Egyptian in Canal Zone involved in recent incident and that this was encouraging. He had just authorized Stevenson to tell Egyptian Foreign Minister that touchstone for renewal of Suez talks was evidence of Egyptian willingness to act firmly to protect British troops against incidents of type they had been subjected to. In any event, Eden said that it was next to impossible to progress on Egyptian problem while he was at Geneva. He indicated matters would have to wait until he returned to London and could take them in hand personally.
I explained I did not expect an immediate answer. Eden agreed to reflect and intimated that he would give me his more considered reaction within a few days.
- Repeated to London as telegram 957 and to Cairo as telegram 39. For an explanation of Secretary Dulles’ presence in Paris, see footnote 1, Document 1321.↩