Before These Memoirs - Part 6: Shukri al-Quwatli's Zurich Hospital-Bed Endorsement of the Secessionist Government

Sunday the 8th

Today the newspaper Al-Gomhuria published an article by Professor Dr. Taha Hussein (the Dean of Arabic Literature), in which he reproached the Syrians none too gently, and criticized their revolt against the republic. Likewise, the tone of the Egyptian press grew sharper still against the coup-makers, and against Syrians in general. Some of what was written did violence to the facts, and was not free of real harm.

I think that most of what was written did not serve the Arab future. The Syrian ministers held a meeting in which they proposed asking the Secretary-General of the Arab League, Mr. Abdel Khalek Hassouna, to mediate with the Syrian coup-makers so that we might travel to Syria.

I sensed that some of them were in a hurry to return, so as to secure their own footing before missing the train.

I opposed this proposal, and said that since we had resigned from the government, we had become nothing more than ordinary Syrian citizens, visiting Egypt.

A heated argument then broke out between myself and Amjad al-Tarabulsi. This colleague and I have never much cared for one another, from long before. For the record, I note that he had been one of the "pillars" of Akram al-Hourani's party, alongside Dr. Hikmat Hashim, who won the chair of the presidency of Damascus University in the days of the union.

The lack of warmth between al-Tarabulsi and myself perhaps goes back to 1938, when we both sat for the competitive examination for the Arabic literature mission to the Sorbonne. I placed first, and he was admitted as well, as a gesture of conciliation toward him, on the grounds that he was "the man of letters of Damascus."

As far as I recall, no two candidates were ever admitted together on any other subject.

When his fellow Baathists resigned from the union's cabinet, he refused to stand in solidarity with them, and did not tender his own resignation. And when Khalil al-Kallas visited him to urge him to resign, he answered him most ungraciously. Likewise, when he became Minister of Higher Education, the members of the Academy "hastened" to elect him a member of it.

I bear witness that he was worthy of this membership. Yet the timing of it suggests something of opportunism and seizing the moment, a thing I myself had refused to do in 1951, when I became Minister of Education, and the Academy fell under that ministry's purview.

Its president, Prince Mustafa al-Shihabi, came to me, along with the vice president, the poet Khalil Mardam Bey, and its secretary, my friend Prince Ja'far al-Jazairi, to offer me membership.

I feared my election would be read as an exploitation of my office, and so I declined the offer. Our ministry then came to an end when al-Shishakli seized power and had us arrested and held at Mezzeh prison, and the matter of the Academy was closed in my mind for good, until its good members came to me themselves, while I was retired at home, in 1991, to offer me membership once again.

I accepted, and they elected me, for which I am grateful, at a time when my own social standing was not one the authorities looked upon with favor.

Since our stay in Egypt was now to be of limited duration, I thought I should see its sights, and let myself find some relief from our troubles. So I took the family on a long trip along the Nile. The eminent judge Abdel Qader al-Aswad was with us, the man Abdel Nasser had appointed first president of the unified Court of Cassation for the two regions, and who still keeps to his office to this day, waiting to submit his own resignation.

Monday the 9th

We spent our day in Alexandria, so the children could see it.

The weather was gloomy and the sea churned as though seized by some fit of madness. We had our lunch at a modest local restaurant the driver recommended to us, and it was truly delicious.

The Syrian officials had begun returning to Damascus by way of Beirut. Some of them said their travel wages had not been paid.

What was driving their haste was their wish to secure a suitable post before the sharp-taloned hawks divided up all the suitable posts among themselves.

It struck me that my two sons had begun growing restless at staying on in Egypt. I do not know whether their schoolmates had begun troubling them, or whether they simply sensed the gloom we were living in.

I considered having my wife Amal, along with Maysa and Ghassan, travel back with the returning ministers' wives, while we waited for the dark state of affairs to become clear.

Tuesday the 10th

Judge Abdel Qader al-Aswad left for Damascus. I saw him off at his office, where a great number of Egyptian Cassation counselors had gathered to console him and bid him farewell with real sorrow and regret. Mr. Ali Bouzo also left, a member of the National Assembly, who had been a member of parliament for Damascus, a former minister, and an old colleague of mine in the People's Party, of which he had been one of the founders. He told me he had attended a meeting with a number of deputies from the Northern Region, to consider the question of tendering their resignations and deciding on their return. This was his own view.

But some of the "deputies" answered him harshly, telling him: if you wish to return to Damascus, no one will stop you. But to press us into a binding decision is none of your affair.

One of them told him: O Abu Urwa, this being his nickname, I have eleven sons and daughters to support. Where am I to find their food and clothing in Damascus? I have decided to become a "political refugee" here, in hopes of obtaining Egyptian citizenship, and drawing the allowance set aside for political refugees.

We saw off Mr. Thabet al-Arees, who was the first among the ministers to hasten back. Thabet had been "enthusiastic" about sending in the armed forces to bring Syria back into the fold of union, as though the mutiny had broken out in Aswan or Minya. His hopes were not disappointed, for he was appointed ambassador for the Syrian coup-makers. I continued my tour of Cairo's landmarks.

We visited the mausoleum of Mustafa Kamel, the Mosque of Muhammad Ali, the Nile Palace, and the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities. The museum's director was most gracious with me. He was a colleague of ours from the University of Paris, and he opened the closed halls for us. We looked long and hard, and let our minds dwell, as we gazed upon the mummy of Tutankhamun.

This great pharaoh, who ruled Egypt thousands of years ago, now lies in his coffin, amid his gold, as though he had died only yesterday. The sight was no mere spectacle, but a lesson and an admonition for anyone willing to take heed and learn from it. Glory be to the One who never dies.

Wednesday the 11th - President Shukri al-Quwatli's Endorsement

Mustafa al-Barudi, the Minister of State for Propaganda and News, broadcast a statement over Damascus radio and television announcing President Shukri al-Quwatli's endorsement, which read: "Dr. Ma'mun al-Kuzbari received a telephone call from President Shukri al-Quwatli, currently in the hospital in Zurich, in which he expressed his delight at the army's victorious stand and at the people's rallying around the army and the government, and he offers his heartfelt congratulations to the people, the army, and the government on this glorious achievement and victorious success.

And that he sends his greetings and his good wishes to the valiant men of the army and to the honorable ministers."

This statement was broadcast yesterday. I heard it only today. I felt a real pang of sorrow on hearing it.

For Shukri al-Quwatli, one of the pillars of independence, one of the well-known Arab nationalists, had stood at the head of the delegation that announced the union on 5 February 1958, and afterward became "the First Arab Citizen."

His house became a historic landmark, a visit to which formed part of the state's own official protocol. So what could have driven him to throw himself, from his very hospital bed, into this putrid atmosphere? I have written elsewhere, in another book, of what Prince Musa'id of Saudi Arabia once told a friend of his in Damascus, his own brother-in-law: that President al-Quwatli had never truly been content with the union, and that he had written a letter to King Saud apologizing to him that the reins had slipped from his hands, so that he had been forced to go along with the march, for fear of losing his own position.

And he did go along with the march, raising the banner of union and never letting an occasion pass without speaking of his own unionist glories. And today he turns against it, for no reasonable cause, neither national nor personal. Even great men fall to the ground in a moment of weakness.

Today I also saw off Professor Dr. Maarouf al-Dawalibi and Professor Mustafa al-Zarqa, who were returning to Damascus. I had hosted a luncheon for them, and for Professor Abdel Qader al-Aswad and eight other friends, at the Hunting Club in Zamalek. The food was lavish, among the very finest served, even grilled jumbo shrimp was on the table.

The bill for twelve guests came to twelve Egyptian pounds, no more, and in those days our own salary was 300 pounds, with the state paying our housing costs and car expenses besides.

There is a lovely custom in Egypt, that of granting ministers membership cards to every club in Cairo, free of any fee. This luncheon at this splendid club was made possible by just such a membership.

Thursday the 12th

We visited the magnificent ruins of Saqqara.

The President issued decisions assigning the Egyptian ministers to take up the burdens of the ministries left vacant by the resignation of the Syrian ministers. This relieved him of an unsettled situation, and let him set his own internal affairs at ease.

Friday the 13th

Syria's delegate to the United Nations submitted a request asking that "the Syrian Arab Republic" be admitted to its membership.

President Abdel Nasser had announced that he had instructed the United Arab Republic's delegate not to stand in the way of this admission.

And so it was. Syria became a state with its own seat in the international organization. Those who rejoiced, rejoiced, and those who laughed, laughed, forgetting the words of God Almighty: "So let them laugh a little and cry much."

As for me, I felt a sorrow and regret beyond any measure.

Saturday the 14th

The senior officials of the Ministry of Planning visited me at my home today, to bid me farewell. I bear witness that I made a great effort to master myself, so that my feelings would not betray my own grief through my emotions. And I bear witness that they showed a depth of national feeling I had never before believed Egyptians capable of. I once argued with Mr. Muhammad Hassanein Heikal, in Aleppo, over Arab nationalism and Pharaonic lineage, and I can almost swear that he held far more fiercely to his Pharaonic heritage than to his Arabism. My colleagues aboard the ship that carried us to France in 1938 once heard words from Taha Hussein, who was on board with us, that astonished them and left them speechless. Yet it was Abdel Nasser, and Abdel Nasser alone, who deserves the greatest credit for Egypt's return to its own Arabism. "As for the foam, it vanishes, cast off; but as for what benefits the people, it remains on the earth."