Britain Planning Action if Akaba Does Not Remain Open to All

Britain assumes that the Akaba waterway will continue to remain open to all shipping. Foreign Under Secretary Lord Gosford told the House of Lords today. Nevertheless, he revealed, Britain has been considering what should be done and “shall naturally consult our friends” in the event an attempt is made to interfere with freedom of passage.

Speaking during a debate on the Middle East in the Upper House, Lord Gosford criticized Egyptian statements that a state of War still exists between Egypt and Israel. He found “encouraging” the fact that President Nasser of Egypt was prepared to consider carious matters in a general peace settlement with Israel and had mentioned a solution of the Arab refugee question in reference to a settlement of Israel’s demand for Suez Canal passage.

Israel’s “new, concrete and generous offer” to accept some of the Arab refugees, Lord Gosford continued might have a far-reaching effect as far as a solution of the Palestine question is concerned.

Lord Henderson, speaking for the Laborites, warned that there was always danger of a renewed conflict as long as the basic causes of resentment and tension continued to bedevil Arab-Israel relations. The “key” to the entire situation, he asserted, was to be found in Egypt’s insistence on continuing the state of war and belligerency in relation to Israel.

Lord Henderson predicted that Israel would soon exercise her right of sending a ship through the Suez Canal, adding that it would be “unwise and unrealistic” for the Egyptian Government or any other government to imagine that Israel would continue to suffer a denial of freedom of passage through either the canal or the Gulf of Akaba.