A group of prominent American Christians today proposed a $800,000,000 United Nations program for refugee resettlement and economic development in the Near East as an inducement to the Arab states and Israel to reach a peace agreement. The blueprint was sent to the Secretary General of the United Nations, the president of the General Assembly, and to 60 UN delegations.
Among the signers of the proposal were Sumner Welles, former U.S. Undersecretary of State; Paul Porter, former head of the O.P.A. and one-time U.S. representative on the UN Palestine Conciliation Commission; Earl G. Harrison, ex-Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization, and James G. Patton, president of the National Farmers Union.
The blueprint calls for the investment of $500,000,000 in the development in the Arab-Israel area of natural and human resources over a period of six years. The Arab states, owing to their oil income, would be requested to help pay for this phase of the program. The amount of $300,000,000 would be devoted to the resettlement of the Arab refugees. Israel would be requested to contribute toward this sum.
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