The Middle East is engulfed. From Karachi to Cairo the tide of nationalism is washing away the foundations of the British empire. Of course that tide is not the measure of the assassination yesterday of Pakistan Premier Liaquat Ali Khan. Rather it was the work of Moslem extremists seeking to make war on the Hindus on Indian forces in Kashmir. But in Iran, in Egypt, the tide flows on. What will be the end of it?

We do know that the Kremlin must be watching all these events with satisfaction. For the design of Communism is to overthrow governments in the midst of chaos first, then coup d’etat, then the substitution of satellitism for nationalism. The flavor of events in the Middle East is reminiscent of those in China, in Czechoslovakia, in Poland. The Kremlin resorted to outright aggression in Korea because that was the only way.

The tried-and-true technique of communism is subversion. Actually the Middle Eastern peoples are not Communist nor likely to become Communist. That is a fact we of the west should remember because if we take too-precipitate action in the Middle East, we will be smiting not the enemy.

In this newspaper as well as all AP dispatches of the free world out peoples with, in their own eyes, legitimate aspirations. This is not to excuse violence, of course the action of brigands and freebooters rather than of aspiring peoples. Yesterday's events included rioting and looting in the Suez, canal zone, with British troops restoring order at cost of perhaps a score dead and many score injured. Egypt, which Monday proclaimed exclusive sovereignty over the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, has yet to implement its decision with armed forces. But the government has refused also to join in a Middle East defense force, indicating that Egypt will remain a military threat within the Middle East defense for as long as it seems profitable to Egypt at least.

The present score in Pakistan, Iran and Egypt is against the west for Communism. But the delicate issues there are not to be solved by either bluster or the older empire remedy of “a whiff of grapeshot.” The west must stand together, deal firmly but persuasively with the Middle Eastern nationalists, and seek to salvage what remains in that vital strategic area for containing Communism and preserving our own security.