SIXTH FLEET WITHDRAWS

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28269, 6 May 1957, Page 9

SIXTH FLEET WITHDRAWS

“Tribute To Hussein ” (New Zealand Press Association) (Rec. 9 p.m.) NEW YORK, May 4. A United Press correspondent aboard the aircraft-carrier Forrestal said that the United States Sixth Fleet steamed back toward the Western Mediterranean today. The departure from the Middle East was a showy tribute to King Hussein’s victory over left-wing elements in Jordan. Vice-Admiral Charles Brown, the fleet commander, said that the spectacular dash of his fleet to the Eastern Mediterranean last week had a “stabilising” influence on the Jordanian crisis. The fleet passed off the northwest tip of Crete at dawn today and was expected to reach the Straits of Messina about sundown The course it followed was almost the same it ran east a week ago. For most of the crew it will mean welcome liberty ashore after five days of gruelling practice exercises that had kept some of them at their posts for as long as 16 hours a day. The five-day stay in the Middle East this time was compared with the 27-day visit during the Suez crisis. . The fleet would participate m the “Green Pilot” exercises of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation scheduled for next week. At any rate it would be little more than a day away from the Middle East should another crisis erupt, said the correspondent.