"This is the capital of the Republic calling," said an announcer over the Egyptian State Radio early one morning last week. It was the first hint of the big news: Egypt, after 5,000 years of rule by Pharaohs, proconsuls and kings, had been declared a republic.
A little later, slender Major General Mohammed Naguib, front man in the military coup which toppled playboy King Farouk from his throne last July, went on the air as the Republic of Egypt's first Premier and President. ". . . We proclaim today," said he, "in the name of the people, abolition of the monarchy."
The decision, a popular one among Egypt's 20 million, abolished the regency set up after Farouk's exile and made young (1½) Fuad, Farouk's son and heir to the throne, just another Egyptian. It left Egypt in the charge of four soldiers, who now have new official titles: Premier Naguib, the "public-relations man" of the military junta, his Vice Premier, Lieut. Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser, 35, the real strongman of the bloodless revolution, and two other Egyptian army officers loyal to Nasser, and therefore to Naguib.