Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-08-05
REVIEW OF THE WEEK
Invitation for Nasser

The eyes of the world last week
were on the Isthmus of Suez, where
the naturalization of the Suez
Canal Co. by Egypt's President
Canal Abdel Nasser on July &c had
precipitated major international
crisis.
Last Monday in London Prime
Minister Anthony Eden and Foreign
Secretary Selwyn Lloyd met with
French Foreign Minister Christian
Pineau and United States Deputy
Undersecretary of State Robert
Murphy to explore possible action
by the Western allies in the Suez
criciS. They were joined Wednes-
day morning by Secretary of State
Dulles, who flew to the British cap
ital after a White House session
with President Eisenhower.
There was much to talk about.
Col. Nasser'S abrupt action seemed
to be naked challenge to the West,
a defiance in the wake of the with
drawal by the United States and
Britain of their previous offer to
lend Egypt financial aid for the
ASwan high dam project.
Apparently the dynamic Egyptian
leaders move was unassailably legal.
Although the 99-year lease held by
the Suez Canal Co. still has Is years
to run, the company officially is
Egyptian, organized under and sub
ject to Egyptian law. In national
izing the company, Col. Nasser
posed no immediate overt threat to
continued navigation of the vital
waterway. But such a threat was
plainly implicit in the seizure.
DisroeIfs Stroke
The canal, a sea-level channel
linking the Mediterranean with the
Red Sea, has been of tremendous
importance in international af-
fairs since the formation of the
Suez company in 1853 by Ferdinand
de LesSepS, the noted French engi-
neer and promoter. When it was
opened to traffic in 1869, the con-
trolling interest in the operating
company was largely in the hands
OF the French and the Egyptian
Khedive, the latter nominally a
vlceroy for the Sultan of Turkey.
but in practice an independent
ruler.
The significance of the big ditch
in the affairs of empire was sharp
ly apparent to Britain's Prime Min
lister Benjamin Disraeli, as it had
not been to Lord Palmerston. whose
government had firmly opposed the
whole idea. Taking quick advan-
tage of a sudden and acute f.
nancial embarrassment of the
khedive, Disraeli by-passed Parlia-
ment and bought the Khedive's
A per cent of the canals shares
with $40 million borrowed from the
House of Rothschild.
Since then, and almost until the
last British garrison hauled down its
flag in June Of this year, British
hegemony over the canal had been
virtually unchallenged. British
troops protected the canal from at
tack through two world wars; the
Keystone ofNthe entire British Mid
die East defense system was at
Suez. Today. that once far-flung
system has dwindled, but the Brit
lsh government still holds its A
per cent of the canal shares. 1t is
the largest single shareholder.
In these circumstances, British
reaction to the NaSSer seizure was
UNDERSTANDABLE bitter. Prime Min
lister Eden faced some sharp uues-
tloning in the House of Commons.
where sentiment was plainly in ia
vor OF immediate and uncompro-
missing steps, military if necessary.
to change Col. Nasser's mind. And
French reaction was even sharper
than Britain's with outright de-
mandS for prompt punitive moves
against Egypt. The National As
sembly, in an angry resolution,
labeled Col. NaSSer "a permanent
menace to peace"
The decision of Secretary Dulles
to join personally in the London
talks was dictated at least in part
by the increasing likelihood that
military action would become in
evitable unless the Big Three, act
ing in concert, could induce Col.
Nasser to accept some kind of in
ternational participation in the
control and management of the
canal
The Alternatives
The alternatives for action APP
peared to be these:
. Accept the naturalization with
protest, course certain to weaken