Office of the Historian

641.74/12–1151: Telegram

The Ambassador in Egypt (Caffery) to the Department of State 1

secret
niact
Cairo, December 11, 1951—midnight.

858. On instrs FonOff Brit Amb called on acting Egypt FonMin tonight to tell him “don’t get upset over Suez developments. The real purpose of them was to cut down points of friction. HMG takes full responsibility and will pay compensation immed. We have got to start talking and get to grips as excitement does not reach any sensible conclusion.”2 P. H. Amr3 came to Eden upset with way things were going and wanted to know what Brit were going to do about it. He agreed with the text of the message which FonOff was sending Stevenson.4

Caffery
  1. Repeated to London, Paris for MacArthur, Rome, Ankara, Tel Aviv, Tehran, and Arab capitals.↩
  2. See footnote 4, supra.↩
  3. Egyptian Ambassador to the United Kingdom.↩
  4. Caffery informed the Secretary in telegram 859 from Cairo, December 12, that the British Embassy at Cairo was “thoroughly aroused” over the implications of a possible break in Anglo-Egyptian relations “and is anxious for me to check again on subj with Egyptians. I will do so.” (641.74/12–1251)↩