The Key West Citizen

British, French Forces To Hold Fire

Cease-Fire Order Issued To Troops

LONDON (AP)

British and French invasion forces in Egypt were under orders today to hold their fire unless attacked.

The cease-fire order to the troops which seized the northern half of the Suez Canal went into effect at 2 a.m.

Cairo radio, broadcasting a U.N. announcement that Britain and France had agreed to halt the fighting, noted that Egypt had agreed conditionally to an earlier U.N. call for a cease-fire.

A dispatch from Beirut, Lebanon, said Egypt had announced that it accepted the U.N. appeal to end hostilities on the condition that all foreign troops withdraw from Egypt. It said Egypt also demanded that the cease-fire must be immediate, that all combatant forces must withdraw behind the armistice lines, that there must be no outside aid to combatants and that free safety of passage through the now blocked Suez Canal must be assured.

British officials looked anxiously to the U. N. for quick action to shore up the cease-fire by moving an international police force into the canal zone. Officials said privately they still regarded the situation as explosive, with no firm guarantees so far against a fresh outbreak of fighting.

The British and French already had said they would not withdraw from the canal zone until the U.N. force could take over the waterway. Israel still gave no indication she would withdraw from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, which the Israelis overran in their week-long invasion.

The Soviet Union, which earlier issued a stern demand for an end to British-French action against Egypt, followed up last night with a demand for economic penalties against the two Western powers and Israel. Communist Party Secretary Mikhail Suslov urged such action in an address on the eve of the 39th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution.

The Egyptian Embassy in Moscow said a number of Soviet reserve officers had applied for service with Egyptian forces in response to an Egyptian appeal for volunteers and assistance.

Most Western observers in Moscow said, however, they believed the Soviet government had not yet decided to send more arms and equipment or "volunteers" to Egypt.

Indian Prime Minister Nehru drafted a message to Soviet Premier Bulganin appealing to the Soviet Union not to intervene with force in the Middle East.

U.N. Secretary Dag Hammarskjold pushed preparations for establishment of the international police force and said nine nations already had promised troops for such duty. They are Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Norway, India, Pakistan and Sweden.

Another meeting of the special emergency session of the 76-nation General Assembly was scheduled today. Nineteen of the Asian-African countries planned to submit a resolution demanding that Britain, France and Israel get their forces out of Egypt immediately.

Another group of seven nations drafted a resolution calling for broad approval of Hammarskjold's plan for an international force to supervise the cease-fire in Egypt.

British and French paratroops (Continued On Page Six)
CEASE-FIRE ORDER
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dropped on the northern end of the canal Monday. They were joined yesterday by ground forces which went ashore at Port Said and Port Fuad. Shortly before the cease-fire deadline, the French Defense Ministry announced that a combined drive had captured Ismailia, halfway point on the 103-mile waterway and site of the huge base the British turned over to the Egyptians.

A correspondent who watched the landings at Port Said said dive-bomber attacks and shelling from naval vessels had reduced the waterfront there to a shambles. He said the British-French attackers appeared to be confining their fire to military targets.

A spokesman for Britain's oil emergency committee said urgent measures" are being taken to get additional supplies of oil from the United States and Venezuela because of the Middle East developments.