CAB129-45 — Page 463

Printed for the Cabinet. May 1951

Page 463

SECRET

C.P. (51) 131

10th May, 1951

Copy No.31

CABINET

THE SUDAN

MEMORANDUM BY SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS

The wide gap which separates the Egyptian Government and His Majesty's Government with regard to the Sudan was described in paragraphs 18 and 19 of my predecessor's Memorandum of 27th November last (Č.P. (50) 283). My colleagues will recall that, at their meeting held on 30th November, the Cabinet agreed that His Majesty's Government could not now depart from their policy that the Sudanese people must be allowed freely to decide their own future, and that no attempt should be made to re-open negotiations with the Egyptian Government about the future of the Sudan (C.M. (50) 79th Conclusions, Minute 4).

2. His Majesty's Ambassador in Cairo was accordingly instructed, when he submitted our defence proposals, to inform the Egyptian Government that His Majesty's Government's objective in the Sudan remains that the Sudanese should be enabled to attain self-government at the earliest practicable opportunity and that they cannot accept the validity of the Egyptian Government's view that the question of the Sudan is inseparable from that of Defence.

3. The Egyptian Government's reply to our new defence proposals holds out little hope of compromise. We must therefore face now the possibility that our dis- cussions with the Egyptian Government may soon break down. If they do, I consider it most important that they should if possible, break not on the issue of defence, but, as in 1947, on the Sudan, where our moral case has already been proved (in the debate at the Security Council in that year) to be strong. To bring this about, I consider that Sir Ralph Stevenson should now be given authority to discuss the future of the Sudan on the basis of certain principles which I attach as the Annex to this paper.

4. These principles, which have been agreed by the Governor-General of the Sudan, have been drafted in an attempt to define as wide a measure of agreement as possible between the Egyptian Government and His Majesty's Government. Even if the Egyptian Government accept them, there is nothing in them which could be regarded as constituting an alteration in the status of the Sudan or will endanger His Majesty's Government's objectives in the Sudan or the right of the Sudanese to self-determination in due course. On the contrary, if the Egyptian Government accept them, they will commit themselves for the first time formally to His Majesty's Government's policy. If, however, the Egyptian Government refuse to accept such a reasonable set of principles, the consequences are likely to prove most damaging to them in any future international debate about the Sudan. Acceptance, therefore, would give us some hope of Egyptian co-operation in respect of the Sudan in future, and refusal may make it possible for us to focus world attention on the issue of the Sudan where our case is strong, rather than on defence where it is, perhaps, not so strong.

5. I therefore invite my colleagues to agree that His Majesty's Ambassador in Cairo should now be instructed to discuss the future of the Sudan with the Egyptian Government, on the basis of the Annex to this paper, and to invite the Egyptian Government's concurrence in the principles set out therein.

Foreignaffic63 SW 587

10th May, 1951.

40595

H. M.

Page 463