Although the forthcoming British general election and the political campaign preceding it are not likely to affect the Anglo-Israel trade and financial talks which will begin here in a fortnight, it is expected here that the negotiations will extend over the entire period and whatever agreement is reached will be signed under the authority of the new British Government.
There is no prospect of a quick settlement since a considerable area of disagreement still exists, it was indicated here. In official quarters it was stated that the recent announcements that the talks will be resumed merely meant that the positions of both parties were sufficiently clear to warrant direct negotiations. It did not mean, these same circles stressed, that the forthcoming talks could be considered merely formal preliminaries to the signing of an agreement on the principles of which an understanding has already been reached.
It was further pointed out that the negotiating delegations will not have before them a series of clearcut proposals, and that hard bargaining is expected to continue for several weeks before details acceptable to both sides are hammered out.
A Foreign Office spokesman today stated that the negotiations would consist of two separate sets of talks, independent of each other. David Horowitz, director-general of the Israel Treasury, will head the Israel parties at both talks. The British have assigned Norman Young, an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, to head the British delegation on sterling talks, and Sir James Crombie will lead the British party discussing settlement of assets of the Mandatory regime in Palestine.
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