The West German Government hopes to be able to overcome the present impasse in the German-Israeli reparation negotiations and thus prevent a complete deadlock, it was indicated in government circles here today.
How it intends to do this was not made clear. There is no intention on the part of the West German Government to increase its offer of $750,000,000 to Israel. Which government circles consider “quite fair” Nor is there any evidence that the Bonn Government is prepared to withdraw its condition that reparations payments to Israel should be coordinated with Germany’s payment of debts and to foreign countries. The latter problem is now under consideration at the London debt conference.
Emphasizing that the West German Government “still has the utmost desire to make reparations” to the Jews, officials here said that Israel should not disregard Germany’s capacity to pay, adding that the idea of reparations would be an empty gesture if the inability to find the wherewithal to meet its obligations prevented fulfilment of the German promises.
(Two members of the Israel reparations delegation, arriving in Israel to report to the government on the Hague talks, refused to make any comments to newsmen today. An emergency meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs Committee has been called for Tuesday to hear a report on the talks by Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett.)
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