U.S. Government Has Known for Some Times Territorial Proposals Made by Mrs. Meir

A State Department source said today that the U.S. government has been aware for some time of the territorial proposals made by Israeli Premier Golda Meir in an interview published in the Times of London last Saturday. The source said “suggestions of the kind she made in the interview have been conveyed to the State Department informally.” Mrs. Meir stated in the interview that Israel must retain the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, Sharm el-Sheikh and part of the West Bank. Asked if the U.S. thought her territorial proposals represented “substantial” or “insubstantial” boundary changes, the source referred newsmen to Secretary of State William P. Rogers’ speech of Dec. 9, 1969 in which he enunciated the so-called Rogers Plan calling for an Israeli withdrawal to its pre-June, 1967 boundaries with only minor alterations. He urged newsmen to give the Rogers speech a “careful reading” because it “remains U.S. public policy” on the subject.