Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion’s projected visit to Paris will take place in June, after the summit meeting of the Great Powers, it was indicated here today.
The Prime Minister, it was understood, decided he would rather have an unhurried and longer visit and talks, after the May summit meeting, than the brief and hurried visit which was likely while President de Gaulle and his aides were preparing last minute arrangements for the summit meeting.
It was reported that, in contrast to the semi-private nature of the Prime Minister’s visits to Washington and London, the visit to Paris will be an official one, with all the usual formalities of protocol. The Prime Minister also plans to visit Holland and Belgium on his European trip.
The Prime Minister reported today to the Committee for Security and Foreign Affairs of the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, on his visits to the United States and Britain. He presented a survey of his talks with President Eisenhower, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold.
Replying to questions from committee members, he gave details of his meetings with the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, American presidential candidates and his impressions of the leaders he met, together with their evaluations of Middle East problems. Mrs. Golda Meir, Israel’s Foreign Minister, and Kaddish Luz, Speaker of the Knesset, attended the meeting.
MAY VISIT SWITZERLAND DURING SUMMIT TALKS, TO ATTEND HERZL MEMORIAL
It was also disclosed today that the Prime Minister may visit Switzerland during the summit conference in May. The official reason for the visit will be a huge memorial meeting on May 15 at Casino Hall in Basle, as part of the Herzl Centenary year observance. The first Zionist Congress was held in that hall under Herzl’s chairmanship.
The May 15 meeting will be addressed either by the Prime Minister or another Cabinet member. The decision on whether the Prime Minister will speak then, it was suggested, will depend on arrangements for his June European trip.
A spokesman for the Jewish Agency here said that the Herzl Centenary celebrations will begin throughout the world in May, and will be part of Israel’s Independence Day celebrations both in Israel and abroad. The celebration in Israel will feature a military parade, a display of the Herzl flag flown in Basle during the first Zionist Congress, and the opening of the Herzl Museum on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.
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