Anthony Eden | Letter signed, to Lord Beaverbrook, on the Middle East, 18 April 1958

Sir Anthony Eden, 1st Earl Of Avon

Letter signed, to Lord Beaverbrook

discussing the situation in the Middle East and marvelling at the short-sightedness of the Americans towards Nasser, 3 pages, 8vo, Rose Bower, Broad Chalke, Salisbury, 18 April 1958

"...the Americans now talk of easing their hold of Nasser's balances in New York. They say his wireless is less anti-American. That is quite likely at a moment when he is attacking Hussein more violently than ever and when, according to the New York Times, the conditions in the Lebanon presage a civil war. Nasser's game is easy enough to see, suck up to the U.S. destroy one of its allies, suck up to the U.S. again and destroy another of its allies. The Americans certainly know how to expend their allies..."

Eden foresees trouble in the near future in Aden and Oman, and expresses his support for the French in North Africa.

"...Why should not Bourguiba agree to his frontier with Tunis being internationally policed? The trouble is that...those who are in control in Washington today are anti-colonial and do not really think that the French ought to be in Algeria, yet if Nasser is established there the flank of N.A.T.O. is turned..."

He also applauds the attitude of the Daily Express in sounding the alarm ("...in general...the British people are bathing in rhetoric about summit meetings and the hydrogen bomb while Nasser and Kruschev steal their clothes in the Middle East...")

PROVENANCE:

Sotheby's, London, 13 March 1979, lot 224