TENSION IN SUEZ ZONE

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27048, 25 May 1953, Page 9

TENSION IN SUEZ ZONE

British General’s Broadcast

tN Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8 pun.) CAIRO, May 23. General Sir Francis Festing, commander of the British troops in Egypt, *h*t hjg motto for the Suez Canal forces to; “We will not be pushed about.”

General Festing said: “Our roje is that of policemen guarding a certain piece of property. Politics are above our heads. We will continue guarding •his position as our property as long as we are told to do so.” Recent incidents in the Canal Zone tended to show that the Egyptian police and local authorities had no control over their own people. British Army and Air Force commanders in the Suez Zone today issued a vigilance warning in a broadcast to forces in the zone.

Simultaneously they disclosed that attempts had been made in the last week by Egyptians to break irito British camps, installations, and airfields in the zone, particularly in the Fay id and Geneifa areas. The broadcast was the first of a series of daily newsletters to be given over the forces’ network. In a joint message General Festing and Air Vice-Marshal Harold Satterly, the Royal Air Force commander in the area, said: ‘‘As you all know, Egypt broke off the canal negotiations, and since then there have been so many threats that we thought it foolish not to be prepared to defend ourselves. As. Sir Winston Churchill said in the House of Commons recently we hope that negotiations will be resumed, but our attitude, meanwhile, must be to wait for developments, relying on our patience and our strength.” The message then described an “unprovoked attack on Thursday by a number of Egyptians on two British soldiers in Port Said.” The message recalled that the two soldiers were stabbed, one of them fatally, and said: .“Eye-witness accounts given British journalists stated that the entire attack on the soldiers lasted a very short time.”

The message then disclosed attempts to break into British installations. The broadcast said: “Our motto must therefore be alertness throughout this difficult period."

Egyptian Reply General Naguib’s chief lieutenant, Lieutenant-Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser, said today: “The latest development in the Egyptian national case is that the British have decided that they must wage.a relentless battle in the cold war and exert moral pressure agafhst us. But the British will lose this battle, for our case is one of justice, our attitude is one of insistence on the right, of belief in it, and of preparedness to defend it. “The latest shot fired by the British in this cold war was the advice to British subjects to leave Egypt. The British gave the advice a theatrical aspect, betraying their real aims and intentions.

It is obvious that the British wish to spread terror and fear in the hearts of members of foreign communities in Egypt. The British themselves know that the present regime extends its full protection to every foreigner living amongst us. “The British aim is always the same —to spread confusion and moral and mental unrest.

“I am sure that all those who live in Egypt, Egyptians and foreigners alike, see through this manoeuvre and realise its aims.”

The first groups of civilians, reacting swiftly to the advice to leave as tension mounts between the two countries, are flying to Britain over the week-end.

In Port Said British troops stayed in barracks after the two soldiers were stabbed in the town’s main street.