EGYPT REJECTS CANAL PLAN

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28223, 11 March 1957, Page 9

EGYPT REJECTS CANAL PLAN

Nasser Wants Full Toll Payments (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11.30 p.m.) LONDON, March 10. Egypt has rejected a Western proposal on the interim payment of Suez Canal tolls. A esterday Colonel Nasser said Egypt was willing to allow British and French ships normal passage in the canal “but they will have to pay tolls to us—all of them—as any other arrangement would amount to discrimination against other countries.” • . T .u e Western plan was that tolls should be paid e ™ te,natlona > Bank and half passed on to Ej P P ,i. he Ot i er half would be used to compensate the Suez Canal Company and to meet other costs.

JUGOSLAVS IN UNEF

Some Duties Refused (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON. Mar. 9 Cairo Radio said today that Jugoslav troops with the United Nations Emergency Force refused to carry out police duties in the Gaza Strip today on the ground that this was the responsibility of the Egyptian authorities. . The radio said the Jugoslav contingent had been asked bv UNEF headquarters to patrol its area in order to prevent riots feared in the Gaza Strip, and to carry out searches. It said the Jugoslavs refused to comply with these instructions because such actions would interfere with the competence of Egyptian police in the Gaza Strip. In Belgrade yesterday, the Jugoslav Government spokesman indicated that Jugoslav troops would be withdrawn from the Gaza Strip if Egypt objected to the presence there of the UNEF. The spokesman, Mr Branko Drascovic, told a press conference: “A condition for the presence of Jugoslav troops within the United Nations Emergency Force is the voluntary agreement of Egypt.”