Egyptian Asserts Byroade Was Responsible for Leak to Nasser

Henry A. Byroade, then American Ambassador to Cairo, was personally responsible for disclosing to President Nasser of Egypt the fact that Washington was about to change its policy towards that country, Simon Malley, an Egyptian correspondent, charged here today following his return from Cairo where he interviewed Col. Nasser.

Writing in “The Reporter,” a weekly magazine, the correspondent quoted Nasser as having declared that Ambassador Byroade had warned him in advance that Assistant Secretary of State George V. Allen was carrying a message to him that “contained something that was likely to wound Egyptian pride and dignity.” Nasser further quoted “the American Ambassador” as adding that the message brought to Cairo by Mr. Allen “would not lead to any practical effect or serious consequences.”

The Egyptian dictator aired the incident about the Allen mission in the course of the speech he delivered at Alexandria announcing Egypt was nationalizing the Suez Canal Company and taking control of the waterway. The State Department translation of this speech quoted Nasser as attributing the information to “a high American official.” But in the Arabic text of the speech, a facsimile of which the correspondent publishes, the reference is to “the American Ambassador.”

The correspondent quoted Mr. Allen as saying subsequently: “I am confident that neither Ambassador Byroade nor any other official tried, through conversations with Nasser, to sabotage my mission to Cairo.”

As Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, Mr. Byroade was generally credited with being the “architect” of American Middle East policy. He left the State Department desk to serve as ambassador in Cairo and was succeeded by Mr. Allen.

The Czechoslovak-Egyptian arms deal and the subsequent Egyptian recognition of Red China spelled the failure of the Byroade policy, and the envoy was subsequently transferred from Cairo to the Union South Africa, Mr. Allen was transferred from the Department to the ambassadorship to Greece.