On the eve of United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold’s visit to Cairo this week, to try to untangle the Israeli-Egyptian impasse over freedom of shipping through the Suez Canal, the United Arab Republic indicated its intention to continue its action against Israel.
Over the week-end, the Egyptian War Prize Commission, at Alexandria, confirmed the confiscation of an Israeli cargo, taken at Port Said last March from the freighter Kapitan Manolis. The $89,000 cargo of phosphates and cement, bound from Haifa to Ceylon, was officially declared by the UAR as “stolen goods,” belonging to Arab refugees whose land had been “usurped” by the Israelis.
Mr. Hammarskjold’s immediate concern is the cargo aboard the Danish freighter Inge Toft. That ship has been tied up at Port Said since May 21. The Egyptians announced they would confiscate that cargo as a “war prize,” as soon as the captain of the Inge Toft has the shipment unloaded. The skipper persists in refusing to unload the cargo.
Mr. Hammarskjold is due in Cairo late Tuesday or early Wednesday, and is scheduled to be there two days. The precedents set up by the UAR are not regarded here as auguries of success to the UN Chief’s latest Middle East mission.
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.
