BEHIND Col, Nasser’s dra-
a matic stroke in nationalizing
phe Suez Canal, and behind his
setermination to press through
tic scheme for a gigantic dam
m the River Nile, lies the need
© find some solution for acute
Kornomic difficulties.

» For three-quarters of a cen-
fury foreign speculators and
Cventurers sucked Egypt dry
Bnd retarded the development
both of agriculture and of in-
dustry. :

e among the poorest in the
sorld.

The land yields two crops a
year. But as there are only six
Million acres of agricultural
fland for some 16 million peas-
ments, their poverty is indes-
@ribable, and the pressure on
the land intense.

» Egypt’s industry is still unde-
veloped—employing only about
@ne million workers; and a
arge part of the capital is still
foreign.

Even trade in cotton, Egypt’s
Merle commodity and principal
eereort was, until 1930, mon-
©polised by foreigners, and is
¥ an mainly in their hands.

4 Although the Nile is one of
‘ithe greatest rivers in the world,
Mand could be the source of
4,abundant electric power for
industry, it does not today ge-
* erate a single kilowatt. :
7 The British built a dam at
2 Aswan’ 50 years ago for ir-
WTigation, but only in the last
4 few years was the construction
if 2€un of the first hydroelectric
station there, which will be-
jeem to operate next year.

' Biggest of all Egyptian enter-
ii Prises, of course, is the Suez

pConal. It was built by foreign
» csbital and Egyptian sweat

and blood. The eapital invested

"has been repaid many times in
yi Cividends,

i) But the Egyptian people —
sth 120,000 of whom died in
ft building the canal — have re-
ef ceived no benefits Last year
m the revenue was about $100
uh Million, of which the Egyptians
g teceived $3 million — despite
y the fact that the company is
4 Egyptian.

Egypt’s economic position
of . made even worse when
fs. € Western Powers, particu-
actly Britain, severely curtailed
a their purchases of Egyptian
, Cotton in 1954-55, at the time
~ of the textile slump.

4 The military regime, whose
@ internal policy is anti-demo-

Today the people of Egypt.

ae hie

FRENCH 9%

cratic and oppressive, feared
the effects of trade relations
with the Soviet Union and the
Socialist States.

It would have preferred to
have solved its problems and
to have obtained capital for
industrial development in co-
operation with the imperial-

ae Pie

United States.

of “aid.”

ist powers — particularly the

But the Egyptian popular
movement, which has a long
and bitter experience of im-
perialist economic control, was
firmly opposed to the strings
attached to the Western offers

As Nasser could not get the
capital or arms from Britain
and America without strings,
he was left no option but to
look elsewhere.

If the Soviet Union and the
Peoples’ Democracies had not
stepped in with trade agree-
nients and bought Egypt’s sur-

aR eT

“LIBERIAN 12%. NORWEGIAN 13%

BRITISH 28%

plus of unsaleable cotton last
year, Egypt could not have
weathered the economic storm.

Today, such is the change
that has taken place, Czecho-
slovakia is Egypt’s biggest cus-
tomer. Trade with the Social-
ist cowntries has increased by
65 percent, excluding the arms
deals.

Important trade agreements
have been made with the Ger-
man Democratic. Republic,
whose exports to Egypt will
include complete equipment
for new factories and power
stations, and with China, which
was. recognised by Egypt last
month.

Because Egypt’s economy is
backward the government it-
self has been compelled to pro-
vide a large part of the capital
for the new industrial enter-
prises.

The most important addition
sc far to Egyptian industry is
the iron and steel mill under
construction, which is to use
local ores; the Egyptian
government contributed $6
million, and a German com-
rany is contributing the same
amount in the form of
machinery. ~

The High Aswan Dam is far
beyond Egypt’s resources with-
cut foreign capital.

If is, indeed, so big a pro-
ject (it would take at least
ten years to build) that Soviet
Foreign ‘Minister Shepilov’s
suggestion that other indus-
irlal projects might be of more
pressing importance for Egypt
may -well have been a sound
one.

But that is for Egypt to de-
cide, and it was only when the
Soviet Union first let it be
known that it might be pre-
pared to help in its construc-
ton that Britain and the U.S.
end the World Bank were
spurred into making any
specific offers of assistance.

But these offers were so
hedged around with conditions
that they would have given
the Americans and the British
complete centrol over Egypt’s
economy. They would have
been in a position to black-
mail Egypt at any time by
with-holding instalments un-
less their requirements were
met.

The High Aswan Dam has
been estimated to cost any-

(Continued on next page)

TOTAL SHIPS
IN 1955
(all nations)

14,666

#

go 7,863 OIL TANKERS

(3.866 LOADED, 3,007 If BALLAST)

walt Ley

5,234 CARGO SHIPS.

All passenger lines.to

‘Far-East go through Canal
aS pus

286
BARGES,
ETC.

1.283 PASSENGER SHIPS

AVERAGE
(per day)

a4

Middle East
Oil- Production

110
million tons -

Oil carried
through Canal
65
million tons

Tie present
oil-route
through Suez
ig

6,000 miles
ROT

If Suez is
closed, the
Cape route
would be

11,000 miles