HC Deb 20 March 1957 vol 567 cc387-8
51. Mr. Grimond

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he will now give advice to British shipping on the payment of Suez Canal dues.

Mr. Ormsby-Gore

There has been no official reply from the Egyptian Government to the Four-Power proposals for interim arrangements for payment of dues. We have, of course, seen the reports of the Egyptian Memorandum published in Cairo on 19th March and we are studying this. Meanwhile it is not possible for Her Majesty's Government to give advice to British ship-owners.

Mr. Grimond

In view of what the Egyptians have said and the fact that it is said that the Canal will be opened in a very short time, is not it time Her Majesty's Government were in a position to make an announcement about this? What is to be the position when British ships arrive at the ends of the Canal?

Mr. Ormsby-Gore

It is not only Her Majesty's Government who are in this position. All the members of the United Nations are in this position. Proposals were put to the Secretary-General and he passed them on to the Egyptian Government, and I think we can still expect that the Egyptian Government should give some reply to the proposals put to them by the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Mr. Gaitskell

Is this, then, one of the subjects which the Secretary-General will be discussing with the Egyptian Government at the present moment?

Mr. Ormsby-Gore

Yes, Sir; that is so.

Captain Waterhouse

May I take it that it is still the policy of Her Majesty's Government to resist unfettered control of the Canal, a policy which would preclude the payment of all dues to any one country?

Mr. Ormsby-Gore

That goes very much wider than the Question and 1 should not like to give an answer.