Members of Congress this weekend deplored “pressure” by the State Department toward ending the picketing of the Egyptian ship Cleopatra in the New York harbor. Congressmen indicated they would raise the issue when Congress acts on forthcoming Mutual Security legislation.
A Statement by a State Department spokesman has said the picketing is “embarrassing. He asserted that “from the viewpoint of foreign policy, it should be made clear that the picketing is regarded abroad as a political demonstration related to the United Arab Republic restrictions against Israel.”
According to the State Department, “an effort by a private group to apply pressure publicly with a view to bringing about shifts in the policies of foreign governments is of course, embarrassing to the conduct of our Government’s foreign relations, and may have unfortunate consequences.”
Rep. Seymour Halpern, New York Republican, in a message to Secretary of State Herter yesterday, reminded the Secretary that denial of commercial access to American citizens “because of foreign religious bias was repugnant to American principles. ” He added that he was “deeply disturbed” by the State Department’s reproach to the Seafarers’ International Union. “These men are protesting in the only way open to them against a policy which is imperiling their right to exercise their trade, “he stressed.
The State Department’s “appeasement” of the United Arab Republic, Congressman. Halpern declared, give the impression “that American condones the continuation of the immoral and irresponsible economic warfare by the Arab nations in the Middle East.”
(In New York, Paul Hall, president of the Seafarers’ International Union, which has been conducting the picketing of the Cleopatra, replied to the State Department that the picketing had been being “only after other efforts to obtain relief for American-flag vessels and crews had been unsuccessful.”
(American seamen on ships trading with Israel, ” he said, “were abused, mistreated and held virtual prisoners” in Egyptian ports, and the “United States Government beyond expressing disapproval of the boycott, has taken no effective action to protect the American flag in international trade.”)
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.
