The Social Democratic Party of West Germany has called on the Bonn Government to press for free passage through the Suez Canal for vessels of all nations, particularly those of Israel, at the London Conference. The statement was made by Fritz Heine, party press chief in a policy statement published in the party’s press service.
A similar view was expressed in the West Berlin daily “Telegraf”, which took issue with the British Government’s view that the Israel-Arab problem and the Suez situation are separate. “If the right of free passage is to be worth anything,” Telegraf said, “it can only be indivisible, and whether the Egyptian Government eliminates the injustice it hitherto practiced against Israel will prove to be an absolute touchstone for the assurances it is now proffering with regard to free passage.”
The influential Hamburg newspaper “Die Welt” takes the opposite point of view. It calls on Germany to take a hands-off attitude, warning that otherwise Egypt might recognize East Germany.
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