ULTIMATUM TO EGYPT

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28155, 19 December 1956, Page 15

ULTIMATUM TO EGYPT

Canal Salvage Fleet May Be Withdrawn (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, December 18. British and French salvage ships would be withdrawn from Port Said within the next 48 hours unless the United Nations got Egyptian consent to their use as part of the clearance team, it was reported in Paris last night, the “News Chronicle” said today. Combined with that consent must be effective guarantees for the safety of their ships and their crews, the “News Chronicle” said. Yesterday in the House of Commons, the Foreign Secretary (Mr Selwyn Lloyd) said that a channel through the canal could be reopened within seven weeks if British and French salvage units were used. It would take some months before fully-laden tankers would be able to pass through. But arrangements were not going as well as he had hoped. Without the Anglo-French salvage units, clearance would take at least twice as long, Mr Lloyd said. In New York, a British United Nations delegation spokesman said the Anglo-French salvage fleet would leave Port Said if no agreement for its use was reached with the United Nations before the withdrawal of the British and French forces from Egypt is completed. A decision on the use of the fleet—whether in whole or in part—must be reached urgently, the spokesman said.