(4 of 7)
Egypt's leading party, the Wafd al Misri (meaning Egyptian Delegation), used to be genuinely popular, a vigorous fighter for reform. But with the death in 1927 of its founder, a onetime fellah named Saad Zagluhl, the party began to sag and split. When the Wafd came to power again in January 1950, after years in & out of office, the party pulled a gigantic switch: from its traditional status as His Majesty's loyal opposition, it became His Majesty's obedient servant. The price for the switch: patronage and palace favors for Wafd politicos. The Wafd government is glad to do the palace little favors in return—like appropriating $3,700,000 for, among other things, repair of the royal yacht and of palace walls.
Evil Genius. Premier Mustapha el Nahas Pasha, titular leader of the Wafd, is old (75), tired and ailing. A fellah's son and once a shrewd, honest politician, Nahas now merely wants to remain Premier in peace & quiet. He still has a following, but on official occasions these days the party usually hires a small crowd to kiss his hand, which makes him happy. The party is really run by a group of rich, unscrupulous newcomers, led by huge Fuad Serag el Din, Wafd secretary general and Minister of the Interior & Finance. Serag el Din's good friend and ally is Madame Zeinab Nahas, the plump, grasping wife whom the Premier married 15 years ago, when she was 25 and he was 60. Western observers generally describe her as Egypt's evil genius.
Serag el Din and Madame Nahas occasionally do the nightclub circuit around Cairo. This produces a set routine: just as they come to the side entrance, the lights have a habit of failing, then coming on as soon as they are safely seated behind a couple of partially obscuring potted palms.
Opponents of the pair forfeit their political heads. Madame Nahas and her brother, a businessman, are today among Egypt's richest people, though their family never had much money. With no visible source of income other than her husband's salary, Madame Nahas so far this year has bought no less than 750 feddans of land (778 acres).
The Strongest Man? The Wafd has the most efficiently corrupt political organization in the country. At the last elections, policemen handed out ballots to the illiterate fellahin and showed them where to make their marks (in that way one cop boasted he had cast 5,000 straight votes for the Wafd). The party made numerous campaign promises of social reform, has carried out virtually none of them; the one way in which it hopes to keep its popularity and make the people forget about their discontent is to whip up anti-British feeling.
The Wafd government has been negotiating for nearly two years with London to revise the 1936 treaty, which gives the British bases in the Suez Canal Zone. Currently the negotiations are bogged down. Many Wafd leaders do not actually want the British to withdraw from the Canal Zone because they know that the Egyptian army, miserably beaten by the Israelis three years ago, could never alone defend Egypt. King Farouk himself is known to oppose British evacuation but would never dare admit it in public.