Eban to Visit Austria

Foreign Minister Abba Eban has accepted an invitation to visit Austria, it was announced today. No date has been set. The invitation was extended by Dr. Rudolph Kirchschlaeger, the first Foreign Minister of Austria to visit Israel, who arrived here last night. He and Eban conferred today at the Foreign Ministry. The topics discussed reportedly included the upcoming US-Soviet summit meeting in Moscow.

Dr. Kirchschlaeger is going to Cairo after his Israeli visit. He stressed on his arrival that there was no connection between his visits to the two Middle Eastern countries. Questioned by reporters, Dr. Kirchschlaeger said he favored the punishment of Nazi war criminals but that as Foreign Minister he did not want to interfere with the courts.

LAGS IN PUNISHING WAR CRIMINALS

The visit of the Austrian diplomat occasioned complaints that Austria lags in the punishment of Nazi war criminals and has failed to make just compensation to its Jewish citizens for the losses they suffered under Nazi rule. In Haifa last night, Dr. S.Schoenblum, president of the World Association of Austrian Jews, charged that Austrian Jews were “step-children” among all survivors of Nazism. He said the Foreign Minister’s visit should be the occasion to raise the question of Austria’s failure to compensate its Nazi victims properly.

Dr. Schoenblum asserted that Austrian Jews, as victims of German aggression, should be compensated by Germany. But when they approached Chancellor Willy Brandt on the issue, he referred them to the Austrian government as did the West German Ambassador to Israel, Schoenblum said. He noted that Austrian law allows only one-eighteenth of what West Germany paid in reparations and even this applies only to those victims whose education was interrupted and does not cover damage to health or the restoration of lost property.