Suez Reopening: 'Ya Sadat'

Among the newsmen who covered the reopening of the Suez Canal last week were TIME Beirut Bureau Chief Karsten Prager, who observed the shoreside ceremonies, and Cairo Bureau Chief Wilton Wynn, who, as pool reporter for the English-speaking press, was aboard the October Six with Sadat. Their accounts of the celebration:

After all the buildup, reported Prager, the event itself at the white and green canal authority building alongside the harbor was refreshingly short. There, 600 invited dignitaries, including Crown Prince Reza of Iran, 14, foreign ambassadors, and defense ministers and army generals of other Arab nations, occupied a ceremonial platform shaped like a pharaonic solar ship.

General Mohammed Abdul Ghani Gamassy, Minister of War and commander of the armed forces, handed the canal over from military to civilian control and called the occasion "a day of joy." Sadat signed a document making the civilian takeover official, then spoke briefly. He declared the reopened waterway "a tributary to peace and a channel to prosperity and cooperation among men." At the same time, he said, Egypt had to reiterate "its determination to perform the sacred duty of liberating its land and all Arab lands still under occupation in the Golan Heights, Sinai and Palestine, and recovering usurped Arab rights." Canal workers broke into shouts of "Allahu akhbar"(God is great).

As Sadat and his guests moved by launch to the October Six, a gaggle of tugs, pilot boats and harbor runabouts sounded horns and whistled furiously. Egyptian MIG fighters and a pride of helicopters circled overhead. The amplified recorded voice of the late beloved Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum (TIME, Feb. 17) mixed with the martial music.

"This is one of the happiest moments of my life," Sadat told Correspondent Wynn on the bridge of the destroyer. Girls blew kisses to the Egyptian President from small boats. Men clung to the tops of masts, beating the air with their fists and chanting, "Ya Sadat, ya Sadat!" He beamed and waved in response. At intervals the ship passed remnants of the old Israeli Bar-Lev Line, now manned by Egyptian troops. Sadat climbed to the destroyer's signal station to return their salutes.

At Qantara East, the assembled crowd released flocks of white doves. At Ballah, a triple line of women in traditional red, blue, green and gold dresses stood on a multicolored mosaic canal bank and danced to flutes and drums. A cascade of balloons sailed skyward. Said one of many banners: WE HAVE OPENED THE CANAL. WE WILL KEEP IT OPEN.

The biggest warship in the convoy, as it turned out, was not Egypt's. It was instead the 14,600-ton guided missile cruiser Little Rock, flagship of the U.S. Sixth Fleet. The Little Rock was trimmed with flags, including the Stars and Stripes, which flapped visibly in the hot summer wind. Two Soviet admirals among the guests in the flotilla--Moscow's sole representation at the ceremonies--glowered and gloomed.

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