U.S. FLEET ON MOVE

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28262, 27 April 1957, Page 11

U.S. FLEET ON MOVE

Role Not Yet Disclosed

(N.Z. Press Association Copyright) (Rec. 11.30 p.m.) LONDON, April 26.

British newspapers said today, that more than 30 ships of the American Sixth Fleet were on their way to the Eastern Mediterranean on urgent orders from President Eisenhower.

The force includes two carriers, the Forrestal (59,650 tons) and the Lake Champlain (33,100 tons) and the 45,000-ton battleship, Wisconsin.

The sudden departures of ships from French and Italian ports stranded a number of men on shore leave. They are being assembled and arrangements made for them to rejoin the fleet. The “Daily Express” interpreted the latest movement of the Sixth Fleet as demonstrating growing recognition in Washington of “the incompetence of the United Nations to deal with these intrigues.” The “Daily Mail” said that America was intervening because only Soviet Russia would gain from a flare-up among the Arab, States. Comment in Washington In Washington the fleet movement was described by authoritative sources as a precaution in case the situation got out of hand and United States nationals had to be evacuated in a hurry from the Jordan area.

The sending of the fleet to the area, plus a statement by President Eisenhower and his Secretary of State (Mr Dulles) that preservation of the independence and integrity of the nations of the Middle East was essential to the, interests of the United States and world peace, left no doubts ih the minds of observers that the ground was being prepared to put the Eisenhower “doctrine” fully into action if necessary. A State Department spokesman implied that the United States shared King Hussein’s view that international communism was responsible for the threat to Jordan’s integrity, but he refused to link this statement with the movement of the Sixth Fleet. Bank’s Gift to Ghana.—Barclay’s Bank is to make a gift of £lO,OOO to the Government of Ghana to be used for educational purposes, it was announced today. The bank opened its first West African branch in 1917 and there are now 93 branches in West Africa, of which 38 are in Ghana.—London, April 26.