Five weeks ago, with Cairo literally aflame and his people running riot in the streets, Egypt's King appointed a new Premier to head his government. Last week, after the second shortest tenure (34 days) in the history of the office, the new Premier resigned. "Certain obstacles," departing Aly Maher Pasha explained to the King, "stood in the way of the completion of my mission."
One of the obstacles was King Farouk himself. Another was his bitter enemy, the corrupt Wafd Party, which still holds a comfortable majority in Egypt's Parliament. Farouk wanted first to clean up the mess of corruption in...