SUEZ ENDANGERED

Chronicle (Levin), 25 May 1946, Page 5

SUEZ ENDANGERED

Press Assn.

Witkdrawal From Egypt > MR. CHURCHILL'S CRITICISM

By Telegraph

-Copyright

j Received Saturday, 10.35 a.m. LONDON, May 24. j Mr. Churciaill told the House of Copimons that unless British troops were permanently stationed : in the canal zone it would be im1 possible to keep the Suez open. It • would be unwise to rely on Palesj tine or Cyrenaica as jumping-off : places for the re-occupation of the : canal zone in the event of an | emergency. j "The course which the GoVernI ment is pursuing in Egypt seems : to me to be marked with the uti most' unwisdom," said Mr. Churchill. He was speaking during the ' debate on the Government's dei cision to withdraw all troops from i Egypt. He added that Britain had no right to claim that its policy had tne approval of the Chiefs of ; Staff without telling the House of the oreeise questions in reply to which the advice was obtained. t The use of Palestine as a jump-.ing-off ground for the re-occupa-tion of the canal zone in an emergency would leave Britain without American aid, 'eontinued Mr. Churchill, and facing the "most profitless task imaginable." The hope of g'aining American aid in Palestine would be seriously prejudiced by , this policy. The use of Cyrenaica would be equally unwise. "We should in that event throw away our grand position of seeking nothing for ourselves from the war, except honour," he declared, "and we should immediately become an interested party in seeking n'ew bases in lands . which were not our's before the war. We should, in regard to Egypt for the next five or six years, rest on the 1936 Treaty in the hope that the United Nations would grow up and become an organisation which will put so many strategic dangers and nightmares into the limbo of the vanished past."