SHIPS DETAINED BY EGYPT

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25607, 23 September 1948, Page 5

SHIPS DETAINED BY EGYPT

CARGOES DESTINED FOR PALESTINE STATEMENT TO HOUSE OF COMMONS (Special Correspondent N.Z.P A ) (Rec. 7.30 p.m.) LONDON. Sept. 22. When he was asked in the House of Commons what quantity of Britishowned cargo destined for Palestine had been detained by the Egyptian authorities and how much had been confiscated, Mr C. P. Mayhew, the Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs, replied that accurate figures were not available. The value of cargoes in which there was a British interest was certainly considerable. He added that the British Ambassador in Cairo (SiF Ronald Campbell), on the instruction of the Foreign Secretary (Mr Bevin), had made repeated representations to the Egyptian Government about the detention and seizure of British ships and cargoes in the Suez canal, because in the view of the British Government this was a flagrant breach of the Suez Canal Convention. -As a result, some of the ships and cargoes had been released. The British Government would continue to insist on a satisfactory solution of this question.

Strike in Trieste.— Free State employees in the British and American zone of Trieste have gone on strike ip protest against the Military Government’s refusal to consider their wage demands.—Trieste, September 21.