Fifteen members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee today joined with Rep. Leonard Farbstein, the sole committee member of Jewish faith, in a letter to Secretary of State Dean Rusk, asking that American aid to Egypt not be misused in ways endangering peace.
The 16 Congressmen cited the recent vote of 117 to 113 by the House of an amendment to the Food for Peace bill, designed to voice the sense of Congress against further aid to aggressors. This amendment was a substitute for a mandatory measure proposed by Rep. Oliver Bolton, Ohio Republican, which would have made mandatory the severance of any further aid to the Nasser regime.
The Congressmen told Mr. Rusk that many members opposed the unconditional cut-off of aid as envisaged in the Bolton amendment, but nevertheless felt Nasser has become an unchallenged threat to the peace. Accordingly, the 16 foreign affairs committeemen asked that U.S. aid be carefully dispensed to prevent an arms imbalance and activities undermining peace. They said that Nasser’s use of aid negated the aims of the assistance program.
Mr. Rusk was reminded of Nasser’s continuing aggression in Yemen, his purchase of new munitions from the Soviet Union, formation of a new United Arab Military Command against Israel, hiring of Nazi scientists and military technicians from Germany to prepare weapons against Israel, pressure for liquidation of U.S. bases in the region, and opposition to American policies in the Congo, Vietnam, Cyprus, and elsewhere. It was pointed out that both the Republican and the Democratic parties, as expressed in the recently adopted platforms, stressed the need to guard against an arms imbalance and aggression in the Near East.
In addition to Mr. Farbstein the communication was signed by Representatives Clement J. Bablocki, of Wisconsin; Edna F. Kelly, of New York; Wayne Hays, Chio; Barratt O’Hara, Illinois; Harris McDowell, Jr., Delaware; William T. Murphy, Illinois; Robert Nix, Pennsylvania; John Monagan, Connecticut–all Democrats; and the following Republicans; Representatives William B. Broomfield, Michigan; Robert R. Barry, New York; J. Irving Whalley, Pennsylvania; Edward J. Derwinski, Illinois; H.R. Gross, Iowa and Vernon Thompson, Wisconsin.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
