Israel’s Stake in Suez Canal Emerges at London Conference

Israel’s stake in the Suez Canal issue came into sharp focus this week-end at the 22-nation conference on the Suez Canal, despite the fact that the United States and Britain are carefully avoiding any mention of the fact that Israeli ships are not permitted by Egypt to pass the canal.

Egypt’s blockade against Israel was highlighted at the conference by the Foreign Ministers of France, Sweden, New Zealand and Netherland. They pointed out at the Conference that Egypt is persistently violating the principle of freedom of passage through the Suez Canal by halting shipping to and from Israel, not withstanding a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning such action as far back as 1951.

All around the periphery of the Conference, the Israel phase of the Suez Canal situation is also being discussed freely. At a press conference yesterday Leonid F. Ilyichev, Soviet press attache, indicated that the Soviet Government has no objections to including Israel in the list of countries which Moscow wants to participate in a new conference on the Suez Canal issue.

Mr. Ilyichev was asked why Israel was excluded from the list of nations to be invited to the second conference which Moscow proposes, while other nations, which have no direct interest in the Suez Canal, have been included. To this the Soviet spokesman replied that the Soviet proposal can still be amended when taken up for discussion.

The fact that British Foreign Minister Selwyn Lloyd is ignoring the Israel phase of the Suez issue was, if anything, highlighted this week-end by an official publication of his own Conservative Party. The Monthly Survey of Foreign Affairs, issued by the Conservative Party’s research department, declared: “Egypt’s blockade of Israeli shipping, or shipping of other nations bound for Israel, not only denies the principle of navigational freedom but defies a resolution adopted by the United Nations Security Council on the initiative of Britain, France and America.”

Pointing out that this resolution had been adopted as long ago as 1951, the Conservative Party organ states: “It is easy to say that this transgression should have been dealt with at the time, or later. But the fact remains that the United Nations, without the means to enforce action, is bound to rely on little more than exhortation.

Hugh Gaitskell, leader of the Labor Party, appealed to Egypt’s President Nasser, in an address today, to “make a show of his good will by allowing Israeli ships to pass through the Canal.” Mr. Gaitskell declared he was “dismayed by Colonel Nasser’s aggressive talk of creating an Arab empire and destroying Israel.”