"1956 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference The 1956 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference was the eighth Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations. It was held in the United Kingdom in June 1956, and was hosted by that country's Prime Minister, Sir Anthony Eden. The new prime minister of Ceylon, Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike pressured Eden to remove British military bases in Ceylon; Britain agreed to close the installations. In international affairs, the leaders expressed their support for the People's Republic of China and Japan being admitted to the United Nations (see China and the United Nations)"
"the Empire, see Imperial Airship Scheme. The Suez Canal route dramatically shortened the sea path between Britain and its colonies in Asia, and, conscious of its significance, the British sent troops to seize control of the canal in 1882 at the beginning of the British occupation of Egypt; even after British troops were withdrawn from the rest of Egypt in accordance with the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936, Britain continued to control the canal and kept troops stationed in the canal zone. After Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the canal in 1956, sparking the Suez Crisis, UK Prime Minister Anthony"
"the vote. Bevan agreed to do so, wishing Gaitskell “higher office”. Brivati writes that Gaitskell's 1951–55 “political performance … has not received the credit it deserves, for energy, for strategy and for sheer nerve”. In 1956 the Egyptian ruler Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal Company, beginning the Suez Crisis. Gaitskell initially told the Prime Minister, Sir Anthony Eden, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Harold Macmillan at a dinner with King Faisal II of Iraq on 26 July 1956, that they would have the support of public opinion for the use of military action against Nasser, but"
"15 years, he succeeded him as the Leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister in April 1955, and a month later won a general election. Eden's worldwide reputation as an opponent of appeasement, a ""man of peace"", and a skilled diplomat was overshadowed in 1956 when the United States refused to support the Anglo-French military response to the Suez Crisis, which critics across party lines regarded as an historic setback for British foreign policy, signalling the end of British predominance in the Middle East. Most historians argue that he made a series of blunders, especially not realising the depth"
"1956 Mollet; Eden and the prime minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, met and colluded, in the Protocol of Sèvres, in a joint attack of Egypt. The Israelis invaded Egypt first, with British and French troops invading the northern Suez Canal area shortly afterward, under the pretext of restoring order in the area. However, the scheme met with unexpected opposition from the United States, both at the United Nations General Assembly and with economical measures. France and Britain were forced into a humiliating backdown. Eden resigned as a result, but Mollet survived the crisis despite fierce leftist criticism. In Michael Karpin's"
"at this election. After the Suez Crisis in 1956, Anthony Eden, the Conservative Prime Minister, became unpopular. He resigned early in 1957, and was succeeded by Chancellor of the Exchequer Harold Macmillan. At that point, the Labour Party, whose leader Hugh Gaitskell had succeeded Clement Attlee after the 1955 general election, enjoyed large leads in opinion polls over the Conservative Party, and it looked as if Labour could win. The Liberal Party also had a new leader, Jo Grimond, so all three parties contested the election with a new leader at the helm. However, the Conservatives enjoyed an upturn in"
"on 1 January 1956. In July 1956, Nasser unilaterally nationalised the Suez Canal. The response of Anthony Eden, who had succeeded Churchill as Prime Minister, was to collude with France to engineer an Israeli attack on Egypt that would give Britain and France an excuse to intervene militarily and retake the canal. Eden infuriated US President Dwight D. Eisenhower, by his lack of consultation, and Eisenhower refused to back the invasion. Another of Eisenhower's concerns was the possibility of a wider war with the Soviet Union after it threatened to intervene on the Egyptian side. Eisenhower applied financial leverage by"
"USA). Britain completed her withdrawal from the Suez Base (under the 1954 Agreement) on 20 July 1956. The Suez Crisis then began in earnest on 26 July 1956 when Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal. The Cabinet met at 11.20am on 27 July in Eden's room in the House of Commons. It was decided that Nasser's action should be opposed on the grounds that the Canal was an international trust (he was entitled to ""nationalise"" the Canal Company, provided compensation was paid to shareholders) and that Britain, if necessary acting alone, should use force as a last resort. Eden straightaway included"
"Anthony Eden succeeded him as Prime Minister. Eden was a very popular figure, as a result of his long wartime service and also his famous good looks and charm. On taking office he immediately called a general election, at which the Conservatives were returned with an increased majority. He left domestic issues to his lieutenants such as Rab Butler, and concentrated largely on foreign policy, forming a close alliance with US President Dwight Eisenhower. On 26 July 1956 Gamal Abdel Nasser, President of Egypt, nationalised the Suez Canal company, in violation of the international agreement he had signed with the"
"resisted Iraqi attempts to merge the two Hashemite-ruled countries. In late 1956, parliamentary elections in Jordan resulted in major victories for Arab nationalist and other left-leaning parties. Hussein subsequently appointed Suleiman Nabulsi, an Arab nationalist, socialist and one of the leading pro-Nasser MP-elects, as prime minister in October. Roughly coinciding with Nabulsi's appointment, the British, French and Israelis launched a tripartite invasion of the Suez Canal and the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, mainly in response to Nasser's nationalization of the Suez Canal Company among other reasons. Hussein declared a state of emergency and his opposition against the invasion and agreed"
"crisis of 1956. The breakdown in mutual confidence arose when Britain and France joined an Israeli invasion of Egypt and sent military forces to capture the Suez Canal, which had been nationalised by President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt. In the years that followed, he was instrumental in restoring and nurturing the ""special relationship"" between London and Washington. His daughter Clarissa married David Pryce-Jones, son of Alan Pryce-Jones and Thérèse Fould-Springer (""Poppy""). In 1961, he became Permanent Under-Secretary of State, an office he held until 1965. He was Provost of Eton 1965-78 and President of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC)"
"led to a withdrawal. U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had strongly warned Britain not to invade; he threatened serious damage to the British financial system by selling the US government's pound sterling bonds. Historians conclude the crisis ""signified the end of Great Britain's role as one of the world's major powers"". The Suez Canal was closed from October 1956 until March 1957. Israel fulfilled some of its objectives, such as attaining freedom of navigation through the Straits of Tiran, which Egypt had blocked to Israeli shipping since 1950. As a result of the conflict, the United Nations created the UNEF"
"Egypt. In 1956, Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez canal, a vital waterway through which most of Europe's oil arrived from the Middle East. Britain and France, in league with Israel, invaded to seize the canal and overthrow Nasser. The United States, led by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, strenuously objected, using diplomatic and financial pressure to force the three invaders to withdraw. Prime Minister Anthony Eden was humiliated and soon resigned. Thorpe summarized the unexpected results: Eden's policy had four main aims: first, to secure the Suez Canal; second and consequently, to ensure continuity of oil supplies; third,"
"resignation and Ben-Gurion returned to the post of prime minister. In 1956, the increasingly pro-Soviet President Nasser of Egypt, announced the nationalization of the (French and British owned) Suez Canal, which was Egypt's main source of foreign currency. Egypt also blockaded the Gulf of Aqaba preventing Israeli access to the Red Sea. Israel made a secret agreement with the French at Sèvres to co-ordinate military operations against Egypt. Britain and France had already begun secret preparations for military action. It has been alleged that the French also agreed to build a nuclear plant for the Israelis and that by 1968"
"assist in the defence against Soviet expansionism. The summer of 1956 saw Evans involved in two controversies, first over the sale of the Trinidad Oil Company to the Texas Oil Company, and second over his allegation that the United States was discriminating against British shipping. When speaking at the outbreak of the Suez Crisis, Evans was critical of the lack of American support for what he described as the British crusade against totalitarianism. As the situation became more grave, Evans pressed Prime Minister Anthony Eden to withhold military action until Parliament had debated it. When Eden called a vote of"
"Crisis Yates emerged as one of the government's staunchest critics. On 1 November 1956, Yates interrupted on a point of order and said, ""I have come to the conclusion that Her Majesty's Government has been involved in an international conspiracy"". Later that day, representatives from the United States and the Soviet Union at the United Nations joined forces and demanded a cease-fire as the secret alliance between Britain, France and Israel known as the Protocol of Sèvres was revealed. Ultimately the exposure led to the downfall of the Prime Minister Anthony Eden. Yates was defeated by the Labour Party in"
"cabinet on 30 January 1957. The medical association escalated its campaign against the proposal in the press and in parliament. The proposal was dropped after the Mollet cabinet fell in May 1957. During the Suez Crisis, in October 1956 Gazier was in charge of the Quai d'Orsay while Christian Pineau, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, was in New York. He was concerned that the Israelis would respond to the presence of Iraqi troops in Jordan by occupying the West Bank. On 14 October 1936 he flew to London with General Maurice Challe to meet Prime Minister Anthony Eden. He pointed"
"Heath won with 150 votes to Reggie Maudling's 133 and Enoch Powell's 15. In 1955 Churchill retired and was succeeded by Sir Anthony Eden. Eden had an immense personal popularity and lengthy experience as Foreign Secretary, and saw the Conservatives win the general election with an increased majority later that year, but his government then ran into a number of troubles on the domestic front as the economy began to overheat. In international affairs the spectacular fiasco of the Suez Crisis of 1956 ended Eden's career, but it had little negative impact on the party. The succession was contentious, with"
"was prepared to make Bevan Shadow Colonial Secretary, and then Shadow Foreign Secretary in 1956. Bevan was as critical of the Egyptian dictator Colonel Nasser's seizure of the Suez Canal on 26 July 1956 as he was of the subsequent Anglo-French military response. He compared Nasser with Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. He was a vocal critic of the Conservative government's actions in the Suez Crisis, noticeably delivering high-profile speeches in Trafalgar Square on 4 November 1956 at a protest rally, and criticising the government's actions and arguments in Commons on 5 December 1956. At the Trafalgar rally, Bevan"
"sold the famous Skylon for scrap. They were conciliatory towards unions and retained nationalisation and the welfare state, while privatising the steel and road haulage industries in 1953. In the 1950s, rebuilding continued, and immigrants from Commonwealth nations, mostly from the Caribbean and the Indian subcontinent, began arriving in a steady flow. The shock of the Suez Crisis of 1956 made clear that Britain had lost its role as a superpower. It already knew it could no longer afford its large Empire. This led to decolonisation, and a withdrawal from almost all of its colonies by 1970. In 1957 Prime"
"1955 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference The 1955 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference was the seventh Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations. It was held in the United Kingdom in January 1955 and was hosted by that country's Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill. A sense of international crisis loomed over the conference which occurred during which the First Taiwan Strait Crisis as were other international developments such as the sudden resignation of Soviet Premier Georgy Malenkov and the fall of French prime minister Pierre Mendès France, all of which were discussed. Atomic energy for peaceful purposes, disarmament,"
"Suez crisis brought relations between Britain and the United States to a low ebb. When Eisenhower met with the new Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, in Bermuda in March 1957, he raised the possibility of basing US intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) systems in the UK. This came to be called Project Emily. There were also discussions on exchanging nuclear submarine propulsion technology for information on the British Calder Hall nuclear power plant, allowing the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority to purchase uranium ore from Canada, and coordinating the war plans of RAF Bomber Command with those of the Strategic Air"
"the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936. It stipulated the British pledge to withdraw all their troops from Egypt, except those necessary to protect the Suez Canal and its surroundings. Following World War II, Egypt denounced the Treaty of 1936, leading to skirmishes with British troops guarding the Canal in 1951. The Egyptian Revolution of 1952 occurred. Then in 1956, President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal Company. The nationalisation escalated tension with Britain and France, who colluded with Israel to invade Egypt, the invasion known in Egypt as the tripartite aggression or the Suez Crisis. The main battles occurred in"
"Crisis in 1956, the United Kingdom had faced strains in its relationship with the U.S. After the Suez conflict it had finally to accept that it could no longer assume that it was the preferred partner of the United States and underwent a massive loss of trust in the special relationship with the U.S. Britain, Denmark, Ireland, and Norway then started to prepare for a trading union, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). British politicians, such as Labour's George Brown were in 1962 still of opinion, that Britain should not only be allowed to join, but be welcomed to lead"
"at just over 215,000—barely one per cent of the workforce—in July 1955. The alliance with the US proved not universal, however, when in July 1956 Gamal Abdel Nasser, President of Egypt, nationalised (seized) the Suez Canal, following the withdrawal of Anglo-American funding for the Aswan Dam. Eden believed the nationalisation was in violation of the Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1954 that Nasser had signed with the British and French governments on 19 October 1954. This view was shared by Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell and Liberal leader Jo Grimond. In 1956 the Suez Canal was of vital importance since over two-thirds of"
"retired to make way for Anthony Eden just before his party's re-election in 1955. However, the Suez crisis of 1956 weakened the government's reputation and Britain's global standing, and prompted Eden to resign in early 1957 to be replaced by Harold Macmillan. By 1959, tax cuts had helped boost living standards and allow for a strong economy and low unemployment, with October 1959 seeing the Tories win their third consecutive general election with a greatly increased majority, which sparked public and media doubt regarding Labour's chances of future election success. Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell then drew a new economic plan"
"mainly on the issues of nuclear disarmament (which the Bevanites supported and the Gaitskellites opposed) and Britain's participation in NATO, specifically the foreign policy of opposing the Soviet Union and supporting the United States (which the Bevanites opposed and Gaitskellites supported). However, during this initial period the factional infighting dimmed somewhat; Gaitskell appointed Bevan to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Colonial Secretary and then Shadow Foreign Minister, the position he held during the Suez Crisis which enabled him to formulate Labour's response to the actions of Prime Minister Anthony Eden. Also in 1956, Bevan was elected Party Treasurer, defeating the"
"1956, just a few days after the fourth anniversary of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, the Egyptian government under President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal Company, which had been run by the French and owned privately, with the British as the largest shareholders. The Israeli–British–French invasion of Egypt which followed is known in Egypt as the Tripartite Aggression but elsewhere as the Suez Crisis. Following Israel's invasion and occupation of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula in the Six-Day War of 1967, the Canal was closed, and did not reopen until 1975. Today, the Canal is a vital link in world"
"in the Middle East. It had little reaction to the seizure before military action. By 1956 the Panama Canal was much more important than Suez to Australia and New Zealand; the following year two experts would write that it ""is not vital to the Australian economy"". The memory, however, of the two nations fighting in two world wars to protect a canal which many still called their ""lifeline"" to Britain or ""jugular vein"", contributed to Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies and Sidney Holland of New Zealand supporting Britain in the early weeks after the seizure. On 7 August Holland hinted"
"Union in May–June 1956, ship ""Nezhin"" passed to discharge cargo in Syria in summer 1956. On 26 July 1956, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser gave a speech in Alexandria announcing the nationalization of the Suez Canal Company, owned by the French and the British, as a means to fund the Aswan Dam project in light of the British–American withdrawal (Withdrawal was completed on 18 July 1956). The nationalization of the channel led to the invasion of the British, French and Israeli troops and the beginning of the Suez campaign (October 1956 - March 1957). The channel was partially destroyed, part"
"Protocol of Sèvres The Protocol of Sèvres (French, ""Protocole de Sèvres"") was a secret agreement reached between the governments of Israel, France and the United Kingdom during discussions held between 22 and 24 October 1956 at Sèvres, France. The protocol concerns their joint political and military collusion to topple the Egyptian leader Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser, by invading and occupying the Suez Canal zone in response to President Nasser's nationalization of the Suez Canal on 26 July. The planning for and the agreements contained in the protocol began the Suez Crisis on 29 October 1956. On 22 October 1956, Prime"
"liberal supporter of nationalist ambitions, such as over Sudanese independence. His 1954 Suez Canal Base Agreement (withdrawing British troops from Suez in return for certain guarantees) was sold to the Conservative Party against Churchill's wishes. Rothwell believes that Eden should have cancelled the Suez Invasion plans in mid-October, when the Anglo-French negotiations at the United Nations were making some headway, and that in 1956 the Arab countries threw away a chance to make peace with Israel on her existing borders. British Government cabinet papers from September 1956, during Eden's term as Prime Minister, have shown that French Prime Minister Guy"
"always distrusted him. Attlee remained as Leader through the early 1950s and fought the 1955 election, finally announcing his retirement after Labour's defeat. Morrison was then 67, and was seen to be too old to embark on a new leadership role. During the leadership election, he was the interim Leader of the Labour Party. Although he stood, he finished last, by a wide margin, of the three candidates, with many of his supporters switching to Hugh Gaitskell. Gaitskell won the election, and Morrison resigned as Deputy Leader. During the Suez Crisis, Morrison advocated unilateral action by the United Kingdom against"