Eden French troops landed in Egypt to overthrow the of Egypt. It was one of the most humiliating and far the events which have shaped British history ever since. THE INVASION of Suez, the thirtieth anniversary of which the press are commenting on this week, was the greatest crisis in British post-war hitory. On 5 November 1956 British and government of Nasser. Yet 24 hours later they were forced to declare a ceasefire. By the end of the year they were out reaching defeats in British history. JOHN ROSS outlines of the big three of world politics.
In 1948 Churchill even claimed a specially privileged role for Britain in world politics due to its position 'three overlapping of the the Atlantic the United States, might, its foreign bases, were not simply for show.
British troops were actively engaged in fighting national liberation movements in Malaya, Cyprus and Kenya. In 1953 established the Central Airican reaeranon to ury to maltam white rule in southern Africa. British After governments had retained conscription World War II. Britain had not only joined NATO in 1949 but was also a member of SEATO (the South East Asia Treaty Organisation) and CENTO Organisation Iraq, Iran, Britain fully participated, war when that broke out in system of British international interests the Middle East occupied a privileged place. It had been which had expanded after World War I. British based oil companies were the only ones in the world to compete with the giant oil corporations of the United States.
War Britain had poor, alone 1955 ing specifically concentrated on fighting in Egypt, North Africa, and the Mediterranean.
At the beginning of the 1950s Britain still had 80,000 troops in Egypt, as well as bases in Libya and military advisers in Iraq. supplied the military commander of Jordan 'Glubb' Pasha. A further British troops passed through the Suez canal annually. A third of the ships passing through the canal were British.
But World War II had rocked European rule in the Arab East to its foundations. In July 1943 nationalist parties won an overwhelming majority in Syria at that time a colony of France.
Syrian fighting with French troops in 1945, France was forced to abandon both Syria and Lebanon. The British, having colluded with Zionist settlers and the United States to establish the state of Israel, abandoned Palestine in 1948. In 1951, just to the east of the Arab world, the regime of Mossadegh had attempted to tionalise the Iranian oilfields. The key event in the Middle East however came in 1952 when a coup led by Nasser overthrew the Egyptian monarchy. Egypt contained a third of all the inhabitants of the Arab world. It also contained the Suez canal.
which had occupied Egypt since 1882, had kept the country in a state of subjugation and medieval backwardness. Less than half of one per cent of landowners owned over one third of all cultivable land. For the 72 percent of peasants owned only 13 per cent of the land. The British had made and broken supposedly independent Egyptian governments their will. So hated were the British that during World War II crowds had openly chanted the name of Rommel on the streets of Cairo.
Following the overthrow of the monarchy the new Egyptian regime progressively radicalised. Its first dethe withdrawal of British forces from Egypt. This was conceded in July 1954 — although not without a Tory revolt in parliament against it led Following this first success Egyptian government began to seek ways to pursue a foreign policy independent from Britian. The first major step in that came in April 1955 wher Nasser met with Nehru of India, Tito of Yugoslavia, Chou En-Lai of China, and Sukarno of Indonesia at Bandung to launch the non-aligned movement. Nasser refused to join the Pact launched by Britain to tie together its alliances in the Middle East. Cairo began openly to support the rebellion against British rule in Kenya.
Israel feared the rise of a modernised Arab state to its west and commencedapolost star attempted t Egypt. Israel attempted organise sabotage against the British forces in Egypt, blaming it on Egyptial nationalists, to provoke the British into This policy collapsed when it was openly exposed at the beginning of La scandal which led to David Ben Gurion resuming the Israeli prime ministership in February 1955.
The Isrealis then began a policy of armed attacks on Egypt. Egypt return began to support guerilla raids on Israel and demanded to buy from the west to protect itself from Israeli attacks. When United States, and France refused to supply arms Egypt bought them from Czechoslovakia an attempt at pursuwhich all horrified British foreign ment. In 1956 Egypt diplomatic relations with China - at that time the US recognise Communist regime in China.
At this point the United States and Britain clearly decided to attempt to bring Nasser, to heel. A key to Egypt's economic development was the construction of the great dam across the Nile at Aswan. In February 1956 the World Bank had agreed to loan $200 million to Egypt towards its construction. But this was on condition the US supplied towards its foreign currency costs. On the 19 July US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles announced Unites States was withdrawing its funding. The aim was to attempt to make Nasser's regime British and US confidently expected Egypt to capitulate.
On 26 July 1956, the fourth an60,000 niversary of the overthrow of the Egyptian monarchy, Nasser gave his answer. In a radio broadcast to the entire Arab East he announced that Egypt would nationalise the British controlled Suez canal. Its profits would be used to finance the Aswan dam - Egypt was limited to seven percent of the profits of the canal by the agreement imposed by the British in 1949. It was an act of open defiance of British control. the invades na- THE BRITISH response to the nationalisation of the canal was immediate and violent. prime minister Eden was meeting with his Iraqi puppet King Feisal and his prime minister Nuri es-Said in London on the evening of 26 July 1956 when the news came. Eden immediately summoned a meeting of cabinet ministers, the chiets of the armed forces, the French ambassador, and the US charge d'affaires. Eden's meeting was the remark that: "The Egyptian has his thumb wind-pipe.' Before his Nure es-Said was reported by Eden to have told him: "Hit him, hit him hard, and hit him now.' The next day a special Egypt committee was formed in the cabinet. Its decision was to launch a military attack on Egypt. It recognised that this would be a major war preparations must be made.
The reaction in Britain, contrary to what is now claimed was almost total support for Eden. Successive editorials the in The Times were entitled "Time for decision', 'What is at stake, of history', gressor'. Only the Observer came out against military action.
Most significant, however, was the reaction of the Labour leadership. Suez claimed as Baghdad Labour internationalism. But the truth is that the initial reaction of the Labour Party leadership, in all its wings, was disgraceful chauvinist filth reminiscent of the Falklands. It was not until the United States stepped in clear, for its own reasons, that it opposed the forthcoming invasion of Egypt, tnat the Labour come out strongly against Eden. The morning tionalisation of the Suez canal Gaitskell, then declared parliament: deplore this high handed and totally unjustifiable step government.' House of Commons on 2 August Gaitin skell declared of Nasser: 'It is all very familiar. It is exactly the same as that we encountered from Mussolini and Hitler in those years before the war. the The headline of the that time controlled by Nasser was 'No more Hitlers' But if the reaction of Gaitskell was policy to be expected govern- disgraceful of all from a socialist point opened of view was the initial role played by was refusing to debate in the even the existence of the Bevan opposed the night to $70 million that the its invasion, more pilable.
later, British Gaitskell The British The action comment to the on our departure that careful *A hinge ay the Guardiane and Guardian La high point of and made leadership began following the naleader •We deeply by Ene Egyptiar In the debate in the Daily Herald, the TUC, then perhaps most Aneurin Bevan. At the time of the first House of Commons, approached Amery, leader of the group of Tory MPs who British withdrawal Egypt in 1954, and told him: "This proves you were right.' Bevan refused to accept Egypt's right to own the waterway which ran through its own territory and declared: "If the sending of one's police and soldiers into the darkness of seize somebody else's poperty is nationalisation, then Ali Baba used the wrong terminology.' Even in December 1956, when Britain had been forced out of Egypt after Bevan still stated: We have never taken the position that in the exercise of sovereign rights Egypt has the right to inflict a mortal wound upon the commerce of the world.' The seeds of Bevan's capitulation a yea when he came out in favour of nuclear weapons witn the notorious remark that British unilateral would send a . foreign secretary naked into the conference chamber', was already present in his reaction to Suez. Tribune, to its credit, made it clear it was completely against a military attack on Egypt however differed from Eden on one decisive point. He made it clear that he was prepared to use force against Egypt but only if it were sanctioned by the United Nations. And the United Nations, in the world of the 1950s, was controlled by the United States. Gaitskell, in short, made it clear that he was prepared to back a military invasion of Egypt only if the United States agreed to it.
US however, for its owr reasons made clear from the beginning that while it was concerned by Nasser's activity it was against an invasion ol Egypt. The US both feared that such an would lead to widespread disorder throughout the Middle East, threatening its interests, and also aimed to displace British influence in the area The American secretary of state John Foster Dulles proposed an international company to run the canal as an alternative to Egyptian nationalisatio or it — ana got baen s support for cal plan. But when Nasser rejected this proposal the US did nothing. Dulles, when accused in private by Eden of selling Britain out over the plan cynically replied: "There is talk of teeth being pulled out of the plan, but I know of no teeth: there were no teeth in it.
It was at this point that Eden took * British and French troops land in Egypt