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Background: This evening at 5.39 p.m. the third session of the Co-Operative was held in the Ceremonial Hall of Cairo University. The session was opened by Sayed Hussein El-Shafei, Minister of Social Affairs and Labour and Chairman of the Congress.

After him President Gamal Abdul Masser spoke for two hours....
......SOF IN ARABIC.......

He thanked members for permitting him to address the gathering and mind the last meeting of the Co-Operative Conference was in June 1956, and at the same time they were celebrating the evacuation of British troops from Egypt, after 70 years occupation. He also referred to the second British evacuation of the Suez affair. Now that the foreigners had gone they were testing a sense of real and full independence.

Today they were reaping the fruits of a long and arduous struggle ... they had the choice of two ways - that of stagnation brought on by outside oppression and domination. Or to follow the way of movement, the way of struggle.

After developing his those of domination, oppression and fear at great length, Masser then dealt with the battle for reconstruction. At the time they were uniting to fight and do away with political slavery, industrialisation was going ahead full blast for the benefit of the people, and the promotion of the national economy and the realisation of economic independence were well on the way to fulfilment. He referred to the Aswan dam project, the fertilizer project, and the setting up of social justice.

The main theme of his address was in reality a catalogue of the nation's successes in the economic field in the face of political oppression and hindrance from outside "imperialistic" forces.