Sir Robert Menzies

Posted in 1956

  • PM Menzies with Lord MountbattenThe Suez crisis:

"... Menzies became embroiled in the Suez crisis, the unhappy sequence of events that followed the Egyptian leader Nasser's abrupt nationalisation of the Suez Canal. Menzies led an international mission to Cairo to try and persuade Nasser that the canal should be controlled by an international body established by treaty and associated with the United Nations. His talks with Nasser broke down when US President Eisenhower unexpectedly declared that the United States would not countenance the use of force against Egypt. When the British and French later bombed Egyptian installations, Menzies declared Australia's support and maintained this untenable position at the United Nations in opposing a resolution censuring Britain and France for their action."
Allan Martin in Australian Prime Ministers, 2000 p 200.

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