State Dept. Meets with Union Officials on the Picketing of Cleopatra

The State Department has held informal talks with unidentified union officials in an effort to bring about an end of the picketing of the Egyptian ship Cleopatra in New York harbor, State Department sources revealed today.

It was pointed out that only one UAR ship calls at American ports each month while more than 30 American ships visit Arab ports in the same period. Therefore, said the State Department, many American seamen will be affected if the Arabs boycott American shipping in all Arab ports.

The State Department meanwhile received rumors that the Arabs will refuse landing facilities to American commercial airliners if the picteting of the Cleopatra persists.

Rep. Victor L. Anfuso, New York Democrat, today took the House floor to laud the Seafarers’ International Union for “upholding the standard of free labor in a free country” by the refusal of union members in New York to unload the Egyptian ship Cleopatra.

Rep. Anfuso said that President Nasser of the United Arab Republic “sees nothing wrong in practicing boycotts and blockades against others, but resents when the same practices are applied against him.” He said Nasser would learn “that hatred begets hatred, and that boycotts will bring forth counter-boycotts.”

(In Cairo, the press today announced that all Arab ports on the Mediterranean and Red Seas will sever radio contact with American ships from midnight Friday, unless the picketing of the Cleopatra is stopped. The Alexandria port wireless operators, and other Arab radio points, announced a decision to help Arab trade unions implement a boycott of American shipping.)