In a summery morning in 1972, while I was sitting in my office, in the general Egyptian consulate in London, the pass man informed me that there was a handsome aged man sitting in the salon waiting to meet the Egyptian consul, and he added that the man was holding an expired Egyptian passport with the royal crown seal on it. I ran to see this Egyptian citizen who seemed to be a VIP. While I was greeting him, he started to introduce himself to me. No sooner did he say Abd-al-Fattah 'Amr, the former Egyptian ambassador to London, than I added; the world squash champion and the favorite chancellor to King Faruq. The man showed great happiness that a young Egyptian diplomat knows these details about him. I held his hand in a highly respectable manner and led him to my office, and then I sat beside him on a big seat out the front where I gave him a highly appreciative welcome for I believed that I was sitting beside a symbol of the Egyptian monarchic age. "Mr. Ambassador, your Excellency belongs to a highborn family from Abu-Tig in Upper Egypt, great and genius Egyptian figures, who contributed to contemporary Egyptian history, have always come from Upper Egypt like 'Abbas Al-'Aqqad, Taha Husayn, politicians as Muhammad Mahmud Basha, and the families of Butrus Ghali Basha and Makram 'Ibid Basha. Even Jamal 'Abd-al-Nasir's family lives in Bani Mur district in Asiut governorate," I told him. The man started to feel comfortable with me, so he told me that he had no grudge towards the Egyptian revolution or its individuals. He added that he was no longer connected with Egypt in terms of political issues, but the national bonds are the only things that keep him affiliated to Egypt. Then he took his passport out of his pocket and said, "I always have this Egyptian passport, which has been expired for more than fifteen years, on my desk in my house. I look at it every morning so that I continue to remember my homeland which I never forget, even though I and my sons have British passports; as you know. Because," he continued, "this Egyptian passport has a special connotation, I came to the general consulate here after I hesitated so many times to renew my passport as I feared the loss of the memories related to it, and my affiliation to the country which I belong to, including the lands where my ancestor are buried in." After hearing this I immediately ordered a new passport for the Egyptian citizen 'Abd-al-Fattah 'Amr, then I signed and sealed it. When I handed him the new passport, he looked at me, almost tearing and said, "I would like you to allow me to keep my old passport as it is a great memory for me and it bears my title as ambassador of the King of Egypt and the Sudan to the United Kingdom." I permitted his request but I ordered the photocopy it and seal it as cancelled. I then said, "Your Excellency, would you accept my invitation for lunch today, especially since we are completely done with the passport issue?" He accepted the invitation showing gratitude as he hadn't expected that special treatment. When we sat at the lunch table, in a restaurant in Noting Hill Gate district, which is closer to Kingston Palace Gardens where the old Egyptian embassy was located, I started to open the hidden memories' box inside the old man. I said, "On my way to Oxford, I saw a road called 'Egypt Lane', and when I asked about the reason behind that name, I was told that it was given to that street as an honor to 'Abd-al-Fattah 'Amr Basha, the international champion and the former Egyptian ambassador. Once again in 2009, during my last visit to England, I remembered that street when I was passing by the same district." As he became absorbed with me narrating his memories, he surprised me with witty questions, like when he asked me where the diplomatic attaché Ahmad 'Ismat Abd-al-Majid was? I smiled and told him that Ahmad 'Abd-al-Majid is now a former minister, a present ambassador and a prominent figure in the Egyptian and Arabic diplomacy (this was in 1972). But when he asked me about some personalities……. I told him that, some of them had gone into retirement, whereas others had quit as part of reformative actions carried out by the government of Egyptian revolution of 1952. Such reformative actions were said to have been carried out inside the Egyptian diplomatic corps in the fifties and at the beginning of the sixties of the last century. In such unbiased objectivity, the man started to talk about the faults of the Royal Era in the Egyptian modern history, though talking very carefully about the faults of the democratic one. Indeed, he expressed great pride in the new courses to be followed, only, at the beginning of late Egyptian President Anwar Al-Sadat's reign. In fact, I enjoyed this time spent speaking with this great man, of whom I took pleasure in the ascent of modern Egyptian history. I asked him many questions so that I could motivate him to continue his speech; a speech that was deemed with highness and elevation; a speech from an experienced diplomatist who represents a whole age. At the end of the day, I had to excuse myself. Truth be known, it seemed like I was taking leave from a most precious part of my dear Egypt. Anyway, the man went on his way hardly believing that a day had come when he witnessed Egypt represented in Egyptian Revolution of 1952, with the Egyptian Royal Era embracing one another! Actually, he went away not able to comprehend that a day had come when he saw a young Egyptian man at the beginning of his diplomatic life, coming to look at someone who might be seen as his father as well as a professor one at a time! That very day, I sent a telegraph to the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, telling them of the measures we have taken and the royal passport I have sent within the coming diplomatic bag. Of course, I did all these things after obtaining permission from the Consul General, who was at that time Moheb al-Samra. This great man, feeling very satisfied with the national duty we have performed, entirely blessed what I had done. Fortunately, we did not receive any statements of objection or reproach from the Ministry. This is my story with one of the symbols of the era that preceded the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. Truthfully, I did learn quite a lot from that man and I was greatly affected by him as well. Therefore, I had to thank God for giving me such a rare chance of meeting that man at the beginning of my diplomatic career.
