EGYPT: Out Goes Naguib

Without even a corporal's guard to accompany them in case of trouble, two Egyptian army officers went to the ornate office of Mohammed Naguib in the Palace of the Republic this week, and told him he was through. Once he had been President, Premier, chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, and benevolent front man for the young officers who kicked out King Farouk and made Egypt a republic. His was the reassuring, pipe-smoking symbol of a new order in an ancient, long-misgoverned land.

But the real ruler of the military junta was 36-year-old Lieut. Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser, who in a test of strength with Naguib last February got himself made Premier and let Naguib stay on in a presidential figurehead job only because of Naguib's immense popularity in the streets. Since then, Nasser has felt increasingly confident of surviving without Naguib's prestige. Last week Nasser saw his chance, when a Moslem Brotherhood leader testified that Naguib had prior knowledge of a recent plot to kill Nasser.

This week came the announcement: "The R.C.C. has today relieved Mohammed Naguib"; he was banished to a comfortable house in the suburbs. The Cairo streets took the news quietly. "That's like Nasser," said a diplomat. "He lets them dangle until they're ready to drop anyhow. Now nobody cares."