If, in these days of barriers and boycotts, it is still true that the flag follows trade, then the news from Cairo was ominous indeed. According to British trade figures, hitherto confidential, this is how Egypt's exports and imports (in Egyptian pounds) for the first nine months of 1952 compare with the same 1951 period:
¶Exports to the United Kingdom dropped 84% (from £33 to £5 million) largely because of a slump in the Lancashire textile industry, which halted Britain's purchase of Egypt's crucial cotton crop. Imports from Britain fell 28% (from £35 to £25 million).
¶Imports from Russia climbed...
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