USE OF SUEZ CANAL

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28257, 20 April 1957, Page 11

USE OF SUEZ CANAL

Passage By U.S. Ships (Rec. 11 p.m.) WASHINGTON, April 18. Several United States ships were reported by Government officials to-night to be preparing to sail through the reopened Suez Canal. United States as well as British and French ships, told by their governments to exercise prudence during the negotiations between Washington and Cairo, have been avoiding the canal since it was reopened, but President Eisenhower’s press conference remark yesterday—that it was absolutely a matter for shipping companies to decide—was interpreted as a green light. In the House of Commons the British Minister of Transport, Mr Harold Watkinson, said that the British Government was continu-

ing to advise British shipowners to avoid using the canal until the position was clearer. "British shipowners are following this advice,” he told a questioner. “Only comparatively few foreign ships have passed through the canal since it was • reopened and the shipowners of the other major maritime nations have adopted a policy similar to our own.” Reuter reported from Port Said that a total of 20 ships passed through the canal today, the largest daily total since it was reopened. A southbound convoy of 16 ships included six Italian and a two Russian vessels. Two more ■ Italian ships were in the north- ■ bound convoy. J