PLAN TO BLOW UP BRITISH SHIP

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27224, 16 December 1953, Page 8

PLAN TO BLOW UP BRITISH SHIP

Statement At Trial In Cairo (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) CAIRO. Dec. 13. The former Wafdist Minister of the Interior (Fuad Serag el Din) claimed in Court today that he was one of two men who planned taking charge of a load of dynamite to blow up a British ship on its way through the Suez Canal. Fuad Serag el Din was defending himself before the Egyptian Revolutionary Tribunal, before which he is charged with corruption and abuse of power. When Serag el Din said he had planned with one of the liberation officers to take charge of a load of dynamite which was to be sent by rail to El Arish with the aim of blowing up a British ship, the President of the Court, Wing Commander Abdel Latif Boghdady, intervened to say: “I wish to reveal the true facts for history’s sake. We, the revolution officers, were the ones who took this dynamite of our own.

“We transferred it to the Canal Zone, not by rail, but in an Egyptian Air Force aeroplane. We stole the ammunition from army depots and risked being court-martialled. We wanted to fight the British but the Wafdist Government hindered us.” Wing Commander Boghdady claimed that the Wafdist abrogation of the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty was a “mere propaganda business to remain in power.” Serag el Din retorted angrily that 4000 auxiliary police fired more than 500,000 rounds of ammunition in the clash with the British forces at Ismailia on January 25. He said that 42 of the auxiliary police were killed on that day.

Wing Commander Boghdady retorted: “Is that the way to fight?”