Nasser Nationalises Shepheard’s Hotel

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29379, 5 December 1960, Page 15

Nasser Nationalises Shepheard’s Hotel

(Rec. 10 p.m.) CAIRO, December 3. Crowds danced in the streets of Cairo today singing the praises of President Nasser after three more Belgian-financed firms were sequestrated by Presidential decree.

It was learned today that the world-famous Shepheard’s and Semiramis hotels are involved in the latest Egyptian move against Belgian interests.

President Nasser took the action in retaliation' against the expulsion of his ambassador in the Congo by Colonel Joseph Mobutu. The three concerns were listed as Egyptian Hotels, including Shepheard’s, the Mining and Mechanical Construction Company, and the Contracting Company. Shepheard’s was once before caught up in the vortex of politics when it was burnt down during anti-British riots in 1952.

Today’s new luxury Shepheard's. on the banks of the Nile, is only 30 per cent, financed by Belgian capital, hotel officials said. They described the move as "purely economic, affecting the shares.”

Last night, patrons in the hotel’s red and gilded saloons were certainly unconscious of any change, although the Belgian manager and deputy manager were reported to absent

Apart from the two hotels, the other two companies sequestrated were described as subsidiaries of the Electric Railway and Heliopolis Companies which were taken over on Thursday. The pattern of the United Arab Republic move against Belgium seemed to be that after the original takeover of enterprises wholly or mainly Belgian-financed, a search has now begun for concerns with minority Belgian shareholdings.

Officials do not exclude further such moves as Egyptian State auditors pursued investigations. Belgian officials in Cairo believed that most Belgian employees in nationalised or sequestrated firms would be obliged to pack up and go home. Belgians are also employed in the Canal Zone, helping dredging operations, but since they are engaged in work of national importance, doubt was expressed whether they would be obliged to leave.

About 200 Egyptian employees of former Belgian firms made a triumphal parade into central Cairo today packed inside six nationalised buses. They stopped outside the Ministry of Rural and Municipal Services, now responsible for trams and buses, and danced, clapped and cheered while patriotic songs were played over loud speakers. Crowds chanted: “Long live Gamal Abdel Nasser, hero of nationalisation.”