The 1956 Suez Campaign became the subject of acrimonious debate in the House of Commons last night when Anthony Head, who was Secretary of State for War then, strongly defended both the military effort and the then Prime Minister Anthony Eden’s decision to launch the campaign.
The “tragedy” of the campaign, Mr. Head asserted, was “that the operation stopped when it did.” He added that Mr. Eden had been right in deciding that Communist infiltration into “a backwards country could be halted only by energetic action.” The former Cabinet official made his points during a stormy debate in which the Opposition demanded the appointment of a select committee to investigate the Suez campaign and the events which led to it.
Richard Crossman, Labor MP, asserted that there must have been collusion with Israel, if not in planning then by the giving of assurances to the Israelis of French air support. He asserted that Israel “could not otherwise have started the operation” and called the Government’s refusal to name a special committee “a conspiracy of silence.”
George Wigg, also a Labor MP, said there was a “dangerous myth” in the Middle East at the present time to the effect that Israel “inflicted a great defeat on the bulk of the Egyptian army and that if the same thing happened tomorrow, the same thing would happen again.” He said he did not think it would.
A Government spokesman said that all the desired information was available in official dispatches and he rejected the demand for a select committee.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
