UN Assembly Votes for Cease-Fire in Mid-East

The United Nations General Assembly at 2:30 this morning passed the U.S. resolution calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities in the Middle East. The vote was 64 in favor, five opposed, and six abstentions. Italy immediately moved urgent consideration of Soviet troop movements into Hungary.

Earlier Abba Eban, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, told the Assembly that his country's sole object in invading Egypt on Monday was put an end to the constant pressure of commando raids that have threatened Israel's existance over the last eight years.

Eban said that his country's military aim was to forestall Egyptian threats to "grind Israel into the dust." The attack, Eban said, "was to eliminate the bases from which armed fedayeen units invade Israel for the purpose of murder, sabotage, and disruption of peaceful life."

The General Assembly session, convened late yesterday afternoon, was considering a motion by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles calling for the cessation of military activities along the war-torn Israeli-Egyptian border.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported Israeli claims that the whole Sinai Peninsula--150 miles wide at the Mediteranean end and 230 miles deep--had fallen to a successful Israeli pincer movement. The 20,000-man Egyptian force guarding the area was reported in full retreat toward the Suez Canal, where landings by British and French paratroops were expected momentarily.

But British Venoms from Cyprus were raking nine airfields, including three in the canal zone, with cannon fire and delayed action bombs. The pilots said they destroyed at least 14 planes on the ground, including hangars, the Associated Press reported.

Reaction in the world's capitals to the day's events ranged from firmness in London to rancorous denunciation in Cairo. The Conservative government of Prime Minister Eden beat off the verbal assaults of Labour leaders and London pickets, and survived four rigid votes of confidence.

In Cairo, meanwhile, President Gamal Abdel Nasser charged the British and French with "flagrant aggression" as air-raid sirens sounded repeatedly and Allied warplanes dominated the air over Suez with round-the-clock assaults on vital installations. Nasser said that he would fight "to the last drop of my blood" rather than "die in slavery."

Also yesterday, Adlai Stevenson categorized a list of Eisenhower failures to work out an effective Middle East solution. U.S. foreign policy in this area, he said, "is at an absolute dead end."

In Philadelphia, meanwhile, making what he called "my final formal address of this campaign," President Eisennower said that now the Big Three Western Alliance "will grow to new and greater strength," despite "the strident voices of those who seem to be seeking to turn world events to political profit."