The State Department was awaiting today reports from the American Embassy in Cairo on the shelling of a Jordan-bound American freighter by Egyptian shore batteries last Friday off the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. The ship, the “Albion,” was reported bound for the Jordanian port of Aqaba with 9,500 tons of U.S. wheat for Palestinian Arab refugees when an Egyptian coastal artillery unit mistook it for a vessel bound for the Israel port of Elath.
The State Department made known here that “urgent representations” were registered at Cairo by the American Embassy. Egyptian authorities promised a prompt investigation and action to facilitate passage of the “Albion” which is still off the Sinai coast and has not yet docked at its destination. An Egyptian military officer was quoted as saying that the relief ship failed to heed an order to stop for inspection.
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