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dated August 12, 1956: Nehru on Suez crisis

Prime Minister Nehru told the informal Foreign Affairs Consultative Committee of MPs in New Delhi on August 10 that the Suez Canal crisis was the most difficult international problem India had had to face since Independence. Members emerged from one hour's discussion with Mr. Nehru with the impression that success or failure of the 24-nation conference in London in evolving a formula acceptable to the parties to the dispute may well make all the difference between peace and war in West Asia. Among those who attended the meeting were Mr. V.K. Krishna Menon and the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretaries, Mr. S. Dutt and Mr. M.J. Desai. Mr. Nehru said India was going to the London conference without commitment to any particular formula. She will not hold a brief for anybody but will attempt to find a solution safeguarding the sovereign rights of Egypt and at the same time honouring treaties recognising the canal's importance as an international waterway. In this task, the Indian delegation would find helpful the talks which Mr. Menon would have in Cairo with the leaders of Egypt, which is not expected to attend the London conference. However, India will oppose firmly any attempt to impose a solution by a steamroller majority at the conference. Drawing attention to the explosive nature of the Suez Canal situation, Mr. Nehru pointed out that while the US had taken a comparatively mild stand in the dispute, it is to be noted that American naval vessels were in the Mediterranean and the Soviet Union, as a signatory to the Convention of 1888, was entitled to station two warships at either end of the canal.

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