519. Telegram From the Embassy in the United Kingdom to the Department of State1
2517. For Acting Secretary. Eden asked me to come to his office in the House at 12 o’clock today and handed me following message which he said he is planning to send to Hammarskjold today provided it is agreed to by French:
Begin verbatim text
“HMG welcome the Secretary-General’s communication of today’s date2 while agreeing that further clarification of certain points is necessary.
“If the Secretary-General can confirm that the Egypt and Israeli governments have accepted an unconditional cease-fire and that the international force to be set up will be competent to secure and supervise the attainment of the objectives set out in the operative paragraphs of the resolution passed by the General Assembly on November 2, HMG will agree to stop further military operations. The clearing of obstructions is not a military operation. The Franco-British forces are equipped to tackle this job and HMG propose that the technicians accompanying the force should begin the work at once. Pending the confirmation of the above HMG are ordering their forces to cease fire at (blank), unless they are attacked.” End verbatim text.
Eden said that the last sentence would be included in the message and blank filled only if military events of today justified its inclusion. Eden stated that British and French troops had completed their occupation of Port Said and were proceeding down the road along the canal toward Ismailia but that Kirkpatrick had been in error when he said that they had actually reached Suez. Eden emphasized that everything was going extremely well. He reiterated the concern which Kirkpatrick has expressed to me this morning about Russians moving into Syria. Eden was extremely anxious that this message reach President immediately and said that if President wished to telephone him regarding it he would be available at any time. I asked Eden and Lloyd who was with him what their purposes were regarding actual withdrawal British and French forces [Page 1016] from Egypt and they said that this message was not intended to cover anything except a cease-fire.3
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 320.5774/11–656. Top Secret; Niact; Presidential Handling. Received at 10:16 a.m.↩
- November 5; see Document 514.↩
At 12:35 p.m. on November 6, the Department of State received telegram 2523 from London which reads as follows: “Confirming telephone conversation to Fisher Howe, Kirkpatrick informed Embassy at 1600 GMT [11 a.m. Washington time] that French have agreed to communication to Secretary-General that cease-fire hour referred to in last sentence thereof will be 2400 hours GMT [7 p.m. Washington time], that communication is consequently going forward now, and that Eden will make a statement in that connection in Commons at 1800 hours GMT.” (Department of State, Central Files, 684A.86/11–656)
In addition to the cease-fire clause, the separate letters, sent by the British and French Governments to the Secretary-General on November 6 (respectively U.N. docs. A/3306 and 3307), included the proposal that British and French “technicians” accompanying the Franco-British force begin clearing the Suez Canal at once. The French note also contained a reminder that in the French letter to the Secretary-General of November 5 (U.N. doc. A/3294) had suggested an early meeting of the Security Council at the ministerial level to work out the conditions for a final cease-fire and a settlement of the problems of the Middle East.
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