World Events in a Month

World Events in a Month

This corner is edited by Ziyadeh Awwad

On Monday, July 16, 1956, the abolition of passports between Syria and Jordan was celebrated, in the presence of representatives of the two governments.

The date of President Quwatli's visit to the Soviet Union was officially set for the first half of next October. An official communiqué was broadcast in both Damascus and Moscow.

The French side's clinging to its point of view on the question of keeping the French armies in Tunisia led to the breaking off of the negotiations that were under way in Paris between the representatives of France and Tunisia.

On Thursday, July 19 of this month, the Secretary-General of the United Nations arrived, coming from Europe and Moscow. He traveled at once to Jerusalem, where he met with the Jordanian and Israeli officials and discussed with them the affairs of the armistice, and some of the questions he had taken up with them on his first visit to the Middle East.

After Britain and America announced their refusal to take part in financing the High Dam project, President Gamal Abdel Nasser seized the occasion of the celebration of the fourth anniversary of the Egyptian revolution and delivered an important speech in Liberation Square in Alexandria on the evening of July 26, in which he announced Egypt's firm decision to take back the concession of the Egyptian Canal Company, which is managed by Frenchmen, Britons, and Dutchmen. This decision had a far-reaching echo in the Western circles concerned, and consultations and contacts were held to meet the Egyptian decision.

In mid-July His Majesty King Faisal visited London on an official visit, during which he was the guest of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. This visit was marked by the frank speeches he exchanged with the British Queen concerning the two countries' relations and the Baghdad Pact.

An official communiqué was issued after the Brioni conference, which brought together the three leaders Nehru, Tito, and Abdel Nasser, in which those assembled affirmed their attachment to the principles of the Bandung conference and to working for peace. Observers noted that the joint communiqué contained nothing new in world politics.

On the night of Wednesday, July 25, the Italian ship Andrea Doria collided with the Swedish ship Stockholm while the two ships were on the high seas, some 200 miles to the northeast of New York. The Italian ship carried about 1,634 passengers, including the crew. The disaster left three persons dead and a large number of passengers with injuries of various kinds. As for the ship, it sank into the depths of the sea after the passengers had been rescued.

General Iskander Mirza, President of the Republic of Pakistan, paid an official visit to Turkey in return for the visit President Bayar made to Pakistan in 1950. The Pakistani President declared in the Turkish Chamber of Deputies that his country supports Turkey's position on the Cyprus problem.

Lebanon declared its position frankly on the questions of petroleum, and its rejection of every attempt to diminish its rights or its dignity. Following the tension in the situation between the Lebanese government and the Iraq Petroleum Company, Britain announced that it would step in at the proper time to settle this dispute in a friendly manner.

The Syrian Prime Minister, Mr. Sabri al-Asali, announced at the last session held by the Chamber of Deputies that his government had approved the project of a federal union between Syria and Egypt, and a special committee was formed to negotiate with Egypt over the realization of this union.