U.S. Urged to Give No Aid to Egypt if Suez Blockade is Not Lifted

Senator Jacob K. Javits of New York told the Senate today that unless President Nasser’s illegal restrictions on use of the Suez Canal are lifted, “we cannot give aid or fail to protest aid proposed by international agencies” to Egypt.

This was a direct reference to proposals for a loan to Egypt by the World Bank to finance widening and deepening of the international waterway. The loan is expected to come up for discussion here in September at the meeting of the Bank’s board of governors.

Speaking on the floor of the Senate, the New York Republican declared that Nasser had renewed the blockade of Israeli cargoes at the Suez Canal in violation of the Constantinople Convention and international law and, during the last ten days, had accompanied this by violent threats and declarations of belligerency.

He noted that Nasser had used a speech by Moshe Dayan, Israel’s former Chief of Staff, as a pretext for his own attacks on Israel and pointed out that Gen. Dayan did not speak for the Israel Government. He said “it must however, be made clear that provocations only exacerbate and make more difficult the maintenance of peace.”

The senator reviewed at length Middle East developments and the Suez Canal situation in recent years and referred to the program offered by President Eisenhower in 1956 for development of the area.

He said that “we cannot hope to bring ab out peace and commerce between Israel and Egypt now. But we can hope to pursue a persistent policy…to bring about respect for international law.” American policy, he added, had often been criticized for failure of consistency in its application. This is a situation in which such consistency is both practical and needed.”

American policy now, he declared, must insist that “the illegal restrictions on the use of the Suez Canal must be lifted and the Inge Toft case settled. Otherwise, we can not give aid or fail to protest aid proposals by international agencies.”