The United States, Britain and France reached agreement on October 29 that in a situation which might develop if Israel invaded Egypt, “it would not be the duty or choice of the three powers concerned to send troops in for the protection of Egypt,” the British Government has now disclosed.
The disclosure that the three powers had agreed that the Tripartite Declaration guarantees would not be applicable in this case was made in the House of Lords last night during a debate on Middle East policy. The Marquess of Reading, Minister of State and Government spokesman in the upper house, revealed the tripartite agreement on the eve of the Israel action against Egypt.
There were cheers from the Government ranks for the Opposition spokesman, Lord Henderson, when he declared that permanent demilitarization of the Sinai Peninsula and the ending of the Egyptian hold on the Gaza Scrip were two things essential to a Middle East settlement, Lord Attlee, former Labor Prime Minister, intervened in the debate to make the point that Israel should have been warned beforehand against taking any military action. “I don’t think they would have disregarded it,” he told the house. “They are a very intelligent people.”
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