Thirty Congressmen, all Democrats, petitioned President Eisenhower to oppose the seating of the United Arab Republic on the United Nations Security Council.
Citing “the role the UAR has played in disturbing the peace,” the 30 members of the House pointed out that the United Nations has received complaints against the UAR from Israel, Lebanon, Sudan and Iraq.
Chairman Emanuel Celler of the House Judiciary Committee Joined with other Congressmen, representing several states, and transmitted the petition to the White House-Opposing a “special honor” to the Nasser regime, Rep. Celler, of New York, stressed that “Article 23 of the United Nations Charter provides that due regard must be paid to the contributions that United Nations members make to international peace and security.”
President Eisenhower was told that Nasser “disregarded totally the Security Council decision of 1951 to permit free passage of all ships through the Suez Canal and has blockaded that canal for all shipping which may relate to trade with Israel.” It was also noted that Nasser had severed relations with Iran, an American ally, and was behind the assassination of Premier Majali of Jordan, a nation that has rejected neutralism in favor of the West.
The United States was urged to vote against the seating of Nasser on the Security Council because “there are many new nations now in the United Nations who could far better fill this seat than could the representatives of the UAR.”
Signatories of the petition included Representatives Emanuel Celler, Victor L. Anfuso, James J. Delaney, Thaddeus J. Dulski, Leonard Farbstein, Jacob H. Gilbert, James C. Healey, Lester Holtzman, Edna F. Kelly, Eugene J. Keogh, Abraham J. Multer, Lee W. O’Brien, Alfred E. Santangelo, James J. Rooney, Ludwig Teller, and Herbert Zelenkol, all of New York state; Hugh J. Addorzic Cornelius E. Gallagher, and Peter W. Rodino, of New Jersey; John A. Blatnik and Roy W. Weir, of Minnesota; John D. Dingell, Martha W. Griffiths, and Thaddeus Machrowicz of Michigan; Daniel J. Flood, Pennsylvania; Barrett O’Hara, Illinois: Henry S. Reuss, Wisconsin and John F. Shelley and James J. Roosevelt, California.
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