"Page 4
THE CHINA MAIL, (1 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16,) 1956, (
AMERICANS ARE MIXED UP OVER MIDDLE EAST STAND
T
By ALEXANDER BROAD
Washington necessary, but they did not the U.S. Government did not
have a1 back. A little of political expediency and a little of personat pique,
HE odd thing about think it was good.
political discussions Now they
their BCG with Americans these foreign policy dictated by days in that most Ameri- "morality" and it seems all cans seem to feel a curious the more "moral" because kind of satisfaction over it is quite clearly not ex- the Middle East.
pedient. They admit--s, for instance, the New York Times and the New York Herald Tribune have point- ed out-that it is not a good idea to split the Western
It is not just the natural feeling of relief which comes from-the-knowledge that the worst that can happen hues probably happened utrendy Al we are all still here to alliance. talk about it.
It is also the feeling that
the United States, this time,
Dangers
is in an indisputably sound IN the State Department moral position. This feeling.
quite
Soma Americans Again, wonder whether the US, might not have been more generous about oil had not 'the Govern ment used the threat of an of shortage in a Inst-ditch bid 'to Franco from stop Britain and going into Egypt. Perhaps the decision not to provide im- mediate oll rollet
was taken because the Govern- simply
made a throut, ment, having hack to carry it out for better or for worse.
Even these Americans, how- ever, de not, in the main, think that Britain and France were sight. Their criticisms από
carrying less weight than one simply becouse, the experts
might expect see of course, may be entirely a clearly the dangers of though they think their Govern
ment may have acted wrongly, delusion-and May be allowing the Western
they agree, nonetheless, that li shown to be one. But it is European
even just had to take some stand against And its th British A
and France French Brinin there all the same.
And they apparent cause is interest- economies to be crippled by have not yet been able to sug- ing and perhaps instructive, an all shortage. The man gest another course of action,
in the street. to, admits Expediency
that this is clangerous,
No
THE brond
ever
outline.
American foreign policy was, en
iner Che
31/2
been dictated mainly by expediency. Americans have been willing to accept almost anything so long as it helped, somehow, to fend off "Communism,”
Plute
J'
2
Old Trade
E.
the IDOLE (31 *
erik; or #17, stand to 11 s but nice,
Exce Ref:uver from the ki ws whore the water i hearts
itune in Suez.
Yet B Somehow feels good There uze, of course, signs of scent thoughts. Some Amerl- for wolude "int. tam #stance, what would have hup- 1ed if the Israel vasion had come after the elections and it President Eisenhower had Consulted before the Bratart wat the French is their ultimatum
Americans list not feel entirely easy about allying en themselves, for instance, with France or ren with These people are wombering Rhee. They thought it was whether the high moral line of
He's back at his old trade- digging up etune, Already, the black headhues ́are following him.
a
The Sen, der says he's “on to" mui-million-dollar
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"These yours? We found them stowed away in the Trans-Antarctic expedition ship."
Fiss
As they're packing up to leave, I want to tell what has never been told before about the night we went in
BRIGADIER "TUBBY" SWORE
T was a lovely night, the night of Novem- ber 6, A crescent moon, clusters of stars,
The road from Port Said to Ismailla is very straight. It runs, blue in the moon- |light, between the Sucz Canal and the canal they Water....a call the Sweet Leuphemism.
Along that road streamed n convoy of Land-Rovers ab requisitioned vehicles
They travelled without head- lamps. They travelled without opposition.
They were tired, the men of the 16 Independent Parachute Brigade who vehicles,
were in
the
But, ALK they munched bicult, they were exultani, They had driven past Port Said. They, and the French paratroopers, had beaten the Narser fanatics.
THEY
HEY would be in Ismailia by dawn. They would cut the road They would stream to Cairo, down the road to Suez. They were the spearhead that would restore the Canal to the West. From across the Canal came Intermittent automatic fire. The French paratroopers were ad- vancing along the Sinal side.
Brigadier "Tubby" Buller- young, small, Irish, whipcord keen was travelling with his
men.
I
BUT
ORDERED
THE DRIVE ON
SUEZ TO STOP
By Donald Edgar
AM back from
Port Said. I had been there since the afternoon of November 6, the day the Royal Marine commandos landed. There are those in London who tell me I took
decision to make. Very difficult, There was nothing in front of us. Even if there had been we would have taken no notice."
part in a squalid and shabby affair. It did not seem so to me there.
And so, for the sake of the men who took part and are still there, I want before the
The rough sounds crept across watery of the Eastern the
where the Mediterranean, American Sixth Fleet lay across our path.
I believe I know from other sources that he swore deeply. It was, they say, escorting a
But be obeyer).
convoy of merchant ships bring- American citizens from
THE MOMENT OF DESTINY AND then the command radle the
started to crackle.
The signals officer brought the message to Buller.
IL was in prdo: from the destroyer depot ship Tyne, the headquarters ship of Limit- General Sir Hugh Stockwall, The order was that nt. 0200 hours G.M.T. he was to halt.
Remember
the date..
The radios bad crackled from ing Whitehall to Episcopi, Middle Alexandria, East headquarters in Cyprus... to H.M.S. Tyne...on to the road to Ismallia.
Communications were not very good. More than one eeer arid to me, "I would to God they had falled.”
THE men I went in with did not know that it would be
a short action, causing us few
the night of November 8 and losses.
7. Remember the straight
But it was very close. So close that one American carrier got inside our radar screen. And American planes were flying close to British planes.
A British admiral sent mcemge 10 the American admiral. The American replied. I am told the langungo of both was hurtful to the seas and skies.
SAW 400 men of the 45 I
Royal Marino Commando
The night before they landed land from the aircraft corriers road. The crescent moon. they lay huddled
across the Ocean and Theseus by hell- decks. But before they slept, copter.
The waters of the Canal.
It is raro for anyone to be they sang. able to point to a day and an They did not, Jike other The sky was filled with their hour and say "That was a peoples, sing tho national awkward, ugly shapes as they moment of destiny.”
anthem or patriotic songs. They whirled across to drop their men This was auch an occasion. song old Army songs, full of to join 40 and 42 Commandos,, Butler, crinding his eyes, told derision, sentiment, and the who had already landed in
"It was
duncult inevitable expletive.
amphibious vehicles..
me:
a very
freshness of memory fades in the murk of Lon- don politics to note down some of the things saw:
Some of the things do not think England should forget.
It was the biggest helicopter action in our history,
was a glorious sunset on that Tuesday afternoon, The came in overhond Sea Furles and released their rockets on Navy House, half a mile in
front.
Absolutely accurate. Abso- lutely terrifying.
I am glad to say that 5000 after war headquarters staff escorted him around the city.
MAGNIFICENT FRENCH
THE French
troops-French paratroopers, the Foreign Legion and their paratroopens --were magnificent,
Tough, battle tried and relentless.
The French Diflcers tromm General Beaufre downwarde were tremendously impressive.
Their officer class Leems Imbued with a built-in co» fidence, A confidence balis In to destroy the belief that 1940 finished them as a milk. tary nation,
THE
official Agure Of 100 Egyptians kille is stupid. Unfortunately, 1 suw many
MOTO,
I believe a fair estimate is; around 1,000 killed, military and elvilion; 5,000 wounded; 25,000 homeless.
It would have been better to tell the truth. No action," however restricted, however Justified, can be carried through without cost,
But American reports talle as We did nothing for the Egyptians.
I sew our surgeons, stripped to the waist, working night and day on the wounded-British and Egyptians.
GIVE US JUST
They blasted Navy House, But- of the 60 Nasserites inside, 15 TEN DAYS. still had to be fought down next morning. Room to room.
ANATOLI CHIK Por stid,
Russian consul in Port Said, is able beyond the office, Ho speaks excellent Arable.
On Tuesday he was four-
I
KNOW now that tho.R.A.F. 'assured the Cabinet, that with 10 days' bombing they could' Nasser's ** military: strength, '
They were told to go ahead.
But, oven with restricted
ing the streets telling the targets, with restricted weight Population that Russian aid of bombs, they were halted after. wae on its way, and that a few days. London and Paris were in I can only
guess at the fismes from Russian rockels, reasons; UÑO 2 American
pressure
world opinion On Wednesday I saw him
Gaitskoll and company, haranguinig'a mob.
NO OIL AND TROUBLED WATERS
By ANDREW FIRTH
Othe Navy and the Army.
were put in
They, too, were restricted. The Navy to nothing larger, than 4.5 shells. The Army to minimum damnge and orders to end the fighting at the curliest possiblə
THEN Nasser first it is true; for only one-fifth of From 700,000,000 tons this year, turing industry may be much moment,
W seized the Suez Canal the world's consumption of off it is expected to reach 1,100,- moro serious shortages, have re-
“Tháˇ-turbo ¦ Services » 'di. their Job, even under ikona. ciroumrisbeek, W
But 0200/hours" "¿(local" tirpio) on November 3 saw the end of Operation, Muskotout,
a good many people argued Middle East dlfields.
000 by 10751.
sulted in a great many, indus that the consequences of Possibly 20 percent or more Output incresses planned for trial conversions from coal to
are the decade are: U.S.A., 30 per- all burning, and there is no den any closure against ship at the known resources
under Comminist: control ping had been exaggerated. current
cent; other Western sources, 70: quick way back. circumstances, percent;
Middle East, 400. per-
HARSH TRUTH » Well, within a short time these Communist sources are cont
ox-- Yours hones, « nuclear power of the closure of the Canal obviously of no use to the West. Even if this discovery and o by blockships, the whole of RISING DEMAND
platation of new lidelds pro- may have tied the balance; ceet normally, 10 sems plain but for at least a decade, and Western Europe - knows.
The remaining resources,, now that
that dependence on the Middle prolinbly for two, all from the otherwise. It is short of
Webba! Mddle East will fiavo to be en- providing about $20,000,000 tons East: mun snow
year are widely scattered, And the trouble and losses, sured if progress and living One bright commentator (to aver the Western Hemisphere, consequent on the temporary standards are to bo maintain Britain) aertod blithely that Amy: imdbidhand country koeu logs at off emphasise the vital od
And that harsh truth should depentionce ca Middle East oil of Middle East oil couit, it may need to securo, and safeguard | wara myth; that off could be boem, be reascod without raseday access to Middle East re- be borne odmotantly in mind by all, who argue by implication obtalked elsewhere Leading man than a ripple on the ostry
Now Erie Like, other unis American" pool the Britain, for many people, in inbpa aro n that Egypt should be conceded
"the" mample, would only have to presente concerned trior, ham had to rasoen audioning that all peopl
replace 3,000,000 trans of Middle pilect
with the control of the Canal, which, as
on road events have shown, will; beiins thur ferpretéck me the right to cibes!It
the Navy ware Aramis, the Army Athos fand: the Air Forca Porthos, Allyonly, those Three Musketeers had had that con, D'Artagnan at
m
But the men in Port Bald puzzlek Taro not hit