CONDITIONS BY EGYPT

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27039, 14 May 1953, Page 9

CONDITIONS BY EGYPT

Insistence On Five Points

LONDON, May 12. ' The Egyptian conditions presented to the British for a settlement of the Suez Canal Zone question were revealed to the House of Commons by the Minister of State (Mr Selwyn Lloyd) today when he followed Mr Attlee in the foreign affairs debate. The House received the Egyptian conditions with laughter, and Mr Lloyd commented that the arrangements suggested by the Egyptians would make the base useless. Mr Lloyd said the Egyptians had insisted on five points at an early Stage in the negotiations on the canal base:— That the physical and technical control of the direction of the base and any British equipment and installations left in it went to the Egyptians. Any British staff left behind in the base must be in Egyptian employment the Egyptians having the right to dismiss them. Instructions to Britons for the handling of British stores and equipment could only be passed to them through the Egyptian Government The Egyptians would have the sole right to decide, or at least the right to veto, the use to which the stores and installations should be put

The British technicians would be replaced by Egyptians in a - very short space of time, “and we got the impression they were thinking in terms of months.” The Minister said it was clear what effect such arrangements would have on the base and the defence of the whole area. In the past it had been possible to develop the base after the outbreak of war, but under modern conditions that would not be possible. Consequently, Britain wanted an arrangement that w’ould ensure the base being in position for immediate action in the event of war. Britain also wanted to discuss the defence of the base, a most complicated and technical matter, requiring the most modern equipment