An American arms firm has offered the Egyptian Embassy in Washington an opportunity to purchase British sub-machine guns and German rifles so that Egyptian raiders in Israel territory would be carrying the same types of weapons as the Israelis and could therefore use any ammunition they might steal from the Israelis, it was revealed today in Drew Pearson’s nationally syndicated column “Washington Merry-Go-Round.”
Mr. Pearson published the text of a letter from the Phoenix International Company of Maryland, whose stationery advertises: “Implements of war our specialty.” The letter, signed by W. H. Evans, Jr., a vice-president of the company, offers the Egyptians a variety of arms, available for inspection in New York, including machine guns, 1,800 Sten guns and German Mauser rifles. The letter then says: “With the same arms as used by the enemy, the raiders can use their ammo and the other items.”
Meanwhile, a Cairo broadcast quoting an editorial from a leading Egyptian newspaper warned Israel that the Arab economic blockade will tighten daily and Egyptian arrangements in the Suez Canal or in the Gulf of Akaba will not ease off. The paper added. “should the Zionists some day lose their senses and be tempted, through illusion or despair, to embark on a new adventure, their crumbling state is done for.”
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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.
