SUEZ EMERGENCY
Illustrated London News - 17th November 1951
RISING
TENSION IN THE SUEZ CANAL ZONE
REINFORCEMENTS
AND EVACUATIONS
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During
the weekend, which began with the Four Power statement answering Egyptian
allegations about the proposed Middle East Command and which immediately
proceeded Mr Eden’s first speech to the General Assembly of the
United Nations at Paris on November 12, the situation in the Canal Zone
underwent little change. There were a number of “pin-prick”
incidents of the kind which indicated the Egyptian Government’s
inability or reluctance to maintain order. Three other ranks were stabbed
and manhandled in the Arab quarter of Ismailia and were rescued by a
patrol of the Lancashire Fusiliers. Guards at the British Hospital at
El Ballah and the petrol installation near Ismailia were fired at, but
when they returned fire the assailants made off. There have been several
cases of oncoming Egyptian cars trying to force British lorries off
the road, and on November 10 an Egyptian motorist appears to have deliberately
run down a soldier of the 16th Parachute Brigade, who, at the time of
writing, was in a critical condition. On the same day, fifty-five women
and forty-nine children, families of R.A.F. men in the Zone, were flown
back to England in Hastings transport aircraft, while reinforcements
of British troops continued,
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