Plain Talk

By Mursi Saad El-Din

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It seems that it is not only the Afro-Asian Writers' Bureau that is trying to resume its activities, but the Egyptian Centre of PEN as well. Within a few years, the centre has gone through more than one reshuffle. The latest took place recently, when the well- known novelist Gamal El-Ghitani was elected president, and one of my favourite women writers, Iqbal Baraka, became secretary-general. El-Ghitani later resigned from his position as president.

I have previously written about PEN, but perhaps it would not be amiss to retell its story. PEN was the idea of an English novelist, Catherine Dawson Scott, who wanted writers of the world to join together to further the efforts for building an international order based on justice and with permanent peace as its objective. Dawson Scott's initiative was in response to the horrors of World War I. She persuaded John Galsworthy, then at the height of his fame, to join her efforts.

Galsworthy was able to draw HG Wells, George Bernard Shaw and other writers who together founded the English PEN Centre. Galsworthy also persuaded Anatole France to create the French centre, and Thomas Mann to preside over a German centre. An International Secretariat was established in London and contacts were made with writers' organisations all over the world to start national centres. Egypt was one, and the secretary- general was Abdel-Rahman Enan.

With the burning of books by the Nazis and the start of World War II, PEN entered a period of stagnation. After the end of the war, PEN was reactivated. I was at that time in London as secretary of the Egyptian Institute, a brainchild of Taha Hussein at the time when he served as advisor to the Minister of Education.

I used to organise lectures by both Egyptian and English intellectuals. The lectures were given in the Institute's beautiful and spacious lecture hall. In one of the lectures I met Herman Ould who was the secretary of both the English PEN centre and the international secretary. He asked me if the English centre could hold its lectures at our Institute since its headquarters at Glebe Place was not adequate. I agreed and that was the beginning of my relation with PEN.

I arranged with Ould the establishment of an Egyptian PEN, and the centre was born. Taha Hussein became its president and Youssef El-Sebai and I became secretaries. On the death of Taha Hussein, Tewfik El-Hakim became president and El-Sebai and I continued as secretaries. The Egyptian centre was represented at all the conferences and seminars organised by PEN in different countries.

A few conferences stand out in my mind, among the dozen or more conferences I participated in: Budapest, London, Amsterdam, Dubrovnik, Amsterdam, New York, London and Vienna. I cherish some of the memories from PEN meetings: my meeting with EM Forster at the Amsterdam Conference in 1954, when we discussed his book Alexandria: A History and a Guide, with the Nobel prize-winner William Golding, with Graham Greene who took us round Brighton which he had made famous with his Brighton Rock, with writers from Germany, Hungary, Finland, Yugoslavia, America, Ireland and others from over 100 national countries that have PEN centres.

I shall always remember Charles Morgan's inaugural speech at the Amsterdam Conference in 1954. He was at that time president of the International PEN. "A June night and no war", he said. "It is a phrase of gratitude and wonder which I used more than once in my writings... which came to my mind again last night as I looked out from my window over this great city of Amsterdam".