Miscellaneous - This Day That Age   

dated July 28, 1956: Suez Canal nationalised

The Egyptian President, Col. Gamel Abdel Nasser, on July 26 announced the nationalisation of the Suez Canal. He told a big rally in Alexandria's Liberation Square that Egypt would use the income from the 103-mile canal to build the Aswan Dam project on the Upper Nile. The announcement was greeted by people packed in the Liberation Square with wild cheers. Col. Nasser said Egypt would build the Aswan Dam, the gigantic project for which Britain and the US recently withdrew their offers of financial aid. He declared, "The Suez Canal is an exploiting company. We shall build the high dam by restoring our rights in the canal. We shall take the income from the Suez Canal - 100 million dollars a year - and build the high dam." He said no authority or bank had the right to spend the funds of the Suez Canal Company without the authority of the Egyptian Government. All the Suez Canal Company funds were now frozen, he declared and said the Government had approved a law nationalising the company. He described the company as "a State within a State" and said, "This inadmissible state of affairs is now ended."

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

CARTOONSCAPE
The Hindu Crossword 8667
Solution to Puzzle 8666
God's will inscrutable
dated July 28, 1956: Suez Canal nationalised
dated July 28, 1956: Sethusamudram Project
dated July 28, 1956: Warning against cross talk
Weather

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu