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Britain Reiterates Intention to Send Jet Planes to Arab Countries

February 3, 1953
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The British Government today stood firmly by its resolve to ship jet planes, to Egypt and other Arab states, despite new attacks on the policy by Labor MP’s in Parliament.

Lloyd Selwyn, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, reiterated statements by other government spokesmen that the planes were defensive weapons designed to help the Arab governments maintain internal order and contribute to the collective defense of the Middle East.

Various Labor MP’s, including Hugh Caitskell, former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sidney Silverman and Anthony Greenwood, attacked the government’s premises, asserting that Britain was getting itself into a spot where her sale of arms might precipitate a war situation in which she would be forced to intervene as a party to the tri-partite declaration of May, 1,950, guaranteeing Middle East borders against aggression.

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