EGYPTIANS BARRED IN THE ZONE
British Troops Occupy Port

(Associated Press, United Press, Reuters)

MOASCAR, Canal Zone, October 19, 1951 – British military authorities tonight barred Egyptian troops from entering the Suez Canal Zone except in transit across the Canal. Military police are inspecting all railway traffic and vehicles entering the Zone.

The order, issued by General Sir George Erskine, G.C. British troops in Egypt, allowed Egyptian troops to pass through the Zone only at 24 hours notice. A British military spokesman said that the Egyptian Commander had agreed to the restriction.

It was reported tonight that British forces have occupied the small port of Adabiyah, south of Suez. The port is used for loading and unloading stores to and from the British garrison in the Canal Zone and the British military authorities refused to pay Customs duties on stores unloaded there today.

The British Air Force have taken over the small civil airport of El Ballah, seven miles east of Ismailia.

Meanwhile, it was officially announced tonight, that an Anglo-Egyptian military agreement had been reached over the strategically vital El Firdan rail and road bridge across the Suez Canal.

A British patrol, moving in to occupy the bridge on Tuesday night, was fired on by Egyptian sentries. The British returned the fire, killing two Egyptians and wounding five.

According to some reports, the British took 36 prisoners.

A British spokesman said all was quiet for the second successive day as the British, with reinforced Egyptian police squads, kept in hand the situation in Ismailia.

British troops were tonight still manning all key bridges and installations along the entire Canal Zone.

Emergency Declared For Four Days
A of total state emergency for at least four days was decreed through the Zone. Other parts of Egypt are being kept under a temporary daily state of emergency.

Steel-helmeted police took up guard duty tonight at Broadcasting House, Cairo, which also houses the Marconi Telegraph Company and Reuter’s Bureau. The largest police force ever placed on guard there now stands at the approaches to the British and US Embassies.

Egyptian Minister of the Interior, Fuad Serag el din Pasha, tonight said that British military forces evacuated Ismailia town at 6 pm local time.

They remained only in Place Champollion (French Square) and an Egyptian girl’s school, which they had transformed into an armed camp, he said.

The Minister denied that the Egyptian C-in-C had apologized to the British Commander on the El Firdan bridge incident and said that the British still occupied the bridge.

All Egyptian railway staff loaned to the British in the Canal Zone were today ordered by the Egyptian authorities to withdraw their services immediately.

Faced with the possibility of British troops going into action, the Egyptians have allowed 53 British soldiers and their families to land at Port Said where they had been held up.

In Cairo, steel-helmeted police threw a barrier across the entrance to the main railway station when thousands of demonstrators tried to force their way on to an Ismailia-bound train “to avenge our brethren killed at the hands of the British imperialists”. In Alexandria, police dispersed thousand of demonstrators outside the British Consulate-General.

General Erskine, GOC, British troops in Egypt, announced tonight that 400 British wives and children of soldiers who were arriving in the Empress of Australia from Britain tomorrow at Port Said, would be sent back to Britain with the same ship.

The Secretary General of the Arab League, Azzam Pasha, tonight suggested that Britain and Egypt alone should resolve the present crisis.

(The Irish Press)