Britain Had No Foreknowledge of Israel’s March into Sinai Eden Says

Britain had absolutely “no foreknowledge that Israel would attack Egypt,” Sir Anthony Eden, Prime Minister, told the House of Commons here today.

Sir Anthony made that statement in defending himself against vigorous attacks by the Laborite opposition which was hammering at him today taking the first opportunity to question him directly since his return from a three-week recuperation from a near breakdown.

Sir Anthony did not reply directly to insistent questions from the Laborites as to whether he and French Prime Minister Guy Mollet had exchanged information about Israel’s plans. But he insisted that “to say that the Government was engaged in some dishonorable conspiracy is completely untrue, and I must emphatically deny it.”

Britain, said the Prime Minister, did warn Israel against a possible attack against Jordan. But that warning, he maintained, had been issued because there had been about 100 casualties in a six-week period along the Jordan-Israel border and because Britain had a special responsibility to Jordan due to its defense treaty with that Arab state.