LONDON CONFERENCE (1956)

Two conferences convened in August and September 1956 in London to handle the crisis triggered by President Nasser's nationalization of the Suez Canal Company.

In response to Egypt's nationalization of the Suez Canal Company in late July 1956, the United States, Britain, and France convened two conferences to which certain maritime states were invited to consider the proper reaction to the crisis. The first London Conference met from 18 to 23 August 1956. The invitation was sent to all states signatory to the 1888 Constantinople Convention, which regulated the administration and supervision of the Suez Canal, plus states that shipped considerable cargo through the Canal. Egypt declined to attend but the Soviet Union and the representative of India tried to represent the views and the rights of Egypt. During the conference Selwyn Lloyd, Britain's minister of foreign affairs, managed to induce eighteen states, including the United States, to sign a formal declaration demanding the establishment of a new international agency, representing the interests of the Canal users, to take over the administration of the Canal affairs.

The expected failure of a delegation, headed by Australian prime minister Robert Menzies, to convince Nasser to accept the London Conference decisions and the growing signs of an imminent Franco-British military operation moved John Foster Dulles, the U.S. secretary of state, to call for a second conference, which convened in London on 19 September. The eighteen states that had signed the first declaration adopted Dulles's proposal to establish a Suez Canal Users Association (SCUA), which was mandated to deal with matters of finance and administration of the Canal on a practical level and thus enforce the users' rights. But, as Anthony Eden later said, the new association was "stillborn." The new Egyptian management continued to operate the Canal successfully, leaving the SCUA unable to enforce its own agenda.

There was nothing illegal in Egypt's nationalization of the Suez Canal, but the British and French governments considered it a severe blow to their standing in the Middle East and North Africa. The London conferences were part of a larger campaign to mobilize international pressure to make Nasser revoke his action. As it later became clear, these two Western powers were less interested in annulment of the nationalization as in a clear rebuff to the Egyptian president and perhaps his ouster as leader of both Egypt and the Arab world. Indeed, even while they were drumming up international diplomatic support, their chiefs of staff were busy planning and preparing a military attack on Egypt, code-named "Musketeer." To a large degree the London conferences were little more than an attempt to go through the motions in order to prove that only a military response could solve the problem. Following a last-minute failed attempt by UN secretary-general Dag Hammarskjöld to mediate a compromise, the British and French, in collusion with Israel, decided to opt for a military solution, leading to the Suez war (Israel's "Sinai Campaign") in late October 1956.

see also suez canal; suez crisis (1956–1957).

Bibliography

Kyle, Keith. Suez. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991.

Lloyd, Selwyn. Suez 1956: A Personal Account. London: Cape, 1978.

Love, Kennett. Suez: The Twice-Fought War. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1969.

Murphy, Robert. Diplomat among Warriors. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1964.

mordechai bar-on