Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1938 - 1970 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
No. of Boxes: 16
Context area
Name of creator
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
The United Nations Suez Clearance Operations (UNSCO) task was to restore the Suez Canal to operating condition after it was blocked by debris as a result of the 1956 Israel/Egypt War. UNSCO operated between December 1956 and April 1957.
Included are correspondence, reports, working papers, clippings, press releases; and salvage lists, maps and charts showing wreck locations and UNSCO operations.
These concern the dredging of the canal; rehabilitation of maintenance workshops, restoration of navigational lighting and telecommunications; and the resumption of canal traffic.
Series consists of correspondence, cables, memoranda and draft memoranda, report outlines, surveys and survey reports, field operations reports, weekly reports, summary reports, final progress reports, reports of conversations, chronologies, indexes, appendices, schedules, lists, logs, inventories, diaries, aide-memoires, handwritten notes, tables, diagrams, floor plans, blueprints, photographs, receipts, invoices, transmittal sheets, biographical notes, press reports, press releases, press clippings, dictionaries, technical manuals, reprints of conference papers, periodical publications, business cards, and company catalogues and brochures relating to the administration and operations of the Suez Canal clearance operations.
Subjects include but are not limited to the following: salvage fleets; salvaged wrecks and other property; telecommunications; electrical equipment and installation; floating apparatus; activities of the British Admiralty and the Anglo-French Fleet; administrative, personnel and financial matters; agreements with the Egyptian government; compensation to Suez Canal shareholders; salvors' rights; the Civil-Watch Unit; returned vessels to owners; policy negotiations; subcontractors; canal dues; damages to workshops; and local shipping agents.
Correspondents include Dag Hammerskjold, UN Secretary-General; Lieutenant-General R. A. Wheeler, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General; Alfred George Katzin, UN Deputy Under-Secretary; Colonel Mahmoud Younis, Engineer, Member of the Director's Office, Suez Canal Authority, Ismailia; Major M. Haaksalo, UN Civil Watch; Harry Howell of Howell and Co.; D. G. Sullivan, Chief Administrative Office, UNSCO; George Lansky, Chief, Field Operation Service; M. Sobhi, Engineer, Head of Transmission Section, Suez Canal Authority; Charles Barton Reynolds, Engineer, International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Arranged alphabetically by subject.