After 72 years the British were resigned to quitting the troubled Suez Canal Zone; the Egyptians would be happy to see them go. Last week, for the first time since talks collapsed nine months ago, shirtsleeved negotiators sat down together, cooled by a single fan, in a rented Cairo villa. At last they seemed to be getting somewhere.
The base ties down, in expensive, debilitating idleness, 80,000 of Britain's best troops, some of whom might be used better in Malaya and elsewhere. The 5,000-sq. mi. area, crammed with men and materiel, is a...
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