The British Government does not now contemplate changing its policy of supplying arms to Egypt, Kenneth Younger, government spokesman on foreign affairs, declared today in the House of Commons. He added that the policy was under constant review.
The question was raised by Ian Mikardo, Labor M.P., who asked that the policy be changed in view of Egypt’s stand on the Korean situation. The opposition members of the House cheered when Mikardo pointed out to Younger that arms shipments to Egypt were premised on their use in collective defense and that Egypt had made it very clear that it would not join the collective effort on Korea.
The issue was pressed further by Conservative Party leader Anthony Eden who pointed out to Younger that Egypt is still preventing the passage of oil tankers through the Suez Canal to Haifa. “It really seems that she is getting away with too much,” Eden declared. Younger admitted that the facts were “unfortunately correct.”
In the course of the debate, Major E.A.H. Legge-Burke, Conservative, waved photographs purporting to show Arab women and children being deported from Israel and demanded that something be done about it. Laborite Barnett Janner Interrupted to protest the “rash and wicked” statements by Legge-Burke. Younger ended the exchange by pcinting out that the incident was not within the province of the British Government to investigate and that since there were conflicting accounts of the incident he could not make any statement about the accuracy of any account.
The recent joint Anglo-Egyptian army maneuvers in the Suez Canal zone conclusively domonstrated Egypt’s inability to defend the area, the British-controlled Near East Arabic Radio declared today in a broadcast monitored here. The announcer added that nevertheless Britain is equipping Egypt with the most modern arms and that it will soon have the most powerful army in the Middle East, except for Israel.
He pointed out that despite this the Egyptian press “misrepresents” everything Britain has done for Egypt and that many highranking Egyptian army officers are anti-British. The announcer charged that during World War II the Egyptians gave away many secreta to the Italian Army.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
