A British Government spokesman in the House of Commons said today that the Egyptian Army was beaten by Israel forces before the British and French forces intervened in the Suez area.
Replying in writing to a questioner, H. D. Ormsby-Gore, Foreign Under-Secretary, said that the claims by the Cairo radio that British and French forces were responsible for Egypt’s defeat in the Sinai were “distorted” and that the British Government was taking measures to inform the entire Middle East of the true situation. All evidence available indicated that the performance of the Egyptian armed forces was very poor and that they proved themselves extremely incompetent, he declared. He revealed that British radio and other information channels was making this cleat to the Arab world.
Meanwhile, a Laborite, H. C. Usborne, and a Conservative, I. J. Pitman, offered a motion today calling on the United Nations to purchase or lease the Sinai Peninsula with control of the Islands of Tiran and Sanafir to be used as an assembly point and the first base for a permanent UN world constabulary. The joint motion also suggests changes in the UN Charter to permit the UN to equip its policemen.
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