Britain's bizarre plot to block the River Nile

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13 April 2012

The British Government hatched a bizarre secret plot to block the River Nile in a bid to win control of the Suez Canal, according to government documents released yesterday.

Ministry of Defence officials were asked to come up with a plan on how the flow of the river could be dramatically cut, which would wreak havoc on Egyptian farmers.

Experts advised that to maximise the impact the Government needed to reduce the flow of water at the Owen Falls Dam in Uganda.

That would dramatically cut the height of central Africa's Lake Victoria, one of the main sources of the White Nile.

They said that even the threat of interference with the river, more than 4,000 miles long in its entirety, would have a major "psychological impact" on the Egyptians.

Details of the plot emerged yesterday in secret Government papers released at the National Archives, in Kew, south-west London.

Discussions unfolded during September 1956 as the Suez crisis was reaching boiling point. Colonel Nasser, the Egyptian president, had prompted outcry from the British and the French when he nationalised the shipping canal in July of that year.

Previously the 106 mile canal connecting the Mediterranean at Port Said with the Red Sea had been controlled by an Anglo-French alliance.

British Prime Minister Anthony Eden feared that Nasser intended to form an Arab Alliance that would cut off oil supplies to Europe. It prompted a flurry of activity and efforts to avert the crisis.

On September 24 Cabinet Secretary Norman Brook forwarded a five-page outline paper detailing the "salient facts" from the Ministry of Defence to the Prime Minister, at his request.

It described how Egypt relied heavily on the White Nile between February and July when farmers concentrated in growth of their rice and cotton crops.

Three quarters of the flow of the river came from Lake Victoria, via the Owen Falls Dam - which also supplied electricity to Uganda and Kenya.

The MoD calculated that if the seven-eighths of water not used for electricity production was held back, Lake Victoria would rise by only 24 centimetres.

Lakes would rain and within 16 months the impact would be felt in Egypt with "serious effects". The report noted: "In addition to any physical results, any suggestion of restrictions on the flow of the Nile would have a strong psychological effect.

"The Egyptians have always adopted a thoroughly selfish attitude on the use of Nile waters, disregarding the rights of other riverian peoples."

Advisors warned that to cut water to the Nile would inevitably lead to war and increase the "xenophobic outpourings of the Arab world".

Cabinet officer John Hunt said: "It might offer useful possibilities for clandestine action. In other words, it might be possible to spread the word among the more illiterate Egyptians that 'unless Nasser climbs down, Britain will cut off the Nile'."

But such a move would have had major repercussions for the perception of Britain overseas and a devastating impact on Uganda, Kenya and Tanganyika.

Ultimately the plan was discarded as unworkable.

In one of the most disastrous foreign policy decisions of the last century on November 1 a bombing campaign was launched by French and British armed forces.

Paratroopers landed on November 5 and on November 6 came the amphibious landings.

That same day Eden was forced to make an embarrassing climb down and under pressure from American President Dwight Eisenhower there was a ceasefire.

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