Eisenhower Urges Congress to Continue Aid to Israel and Arabs

President Eisenhower, in a message to Congress today asking enactment of a Mutual Security program for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1956, reported that American cooperation with Israel and the Arab states “is beginning to bring results, particularly in the development of water resources.”

The President said: “The continuing tension between the Arab states and Israel handicaps the peoples of all Near East nations. We should continue to work with the governments and peoples on both sides to improve their economic status and accelerate their progress toward lasting peace between them. Our cooperation is beginning to bring results, particularly in the development of water resources. Such developments in the Palestine area can go far to remove present causes of tension.”

Mr. Eisenhower indicated pleasure over the Iraqi-Turkish pact. He said: “In the Near East, our stalwart North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies, Greece and Turkey, are both making significant progress. But neither of them can alone support the substantial armed forces which they maintain for their own defense and for the NATO force goals in that area. Their initiative in promoting security arrangements in the Balkans, and Turkey’s vigorous effort for Middle East defense, reinforce the need for continued support of their efforts. Iraq’s action in joining with Turkey in a defensive security arrangement is another favorable development.”

Mr. Eisenhower did not make known the specific amounts of aid the Executive Branch will ask for Israel or the Arab states, nor, as a matter of fact, for any country. In general terms, he said the program to be submitted “reflects the greatly improved conditions in Europe and provides for the critical needs of Asia. It encourages private overseas investment and private enterprise abroad, fosters an increase in cooperative effort, emphasizes loans rather than grants wherever possible.”

EMPHASIZES EXISTING THREAT TO SECURITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST

The program recommended for the fiscal year 1956, he said, proposes no economic aid for the original Marshall Plan countries in Western Europe. The President emphasized that “the immediate threats to world security and stability are now centered in Asia” and that the “preponderance of funds requested of Congress will be used to meet the threat there,” He specifically mentioned the Middle East as part of the area to which he referred.

Mr. Eisenhower “strongly” recommended that the United Nations Technical Assistance program “be supported in a continuing and adequate manner.” In total, for fiscal year 1956, the President recommended that Congress approve funds totaling $3,530,000,000 for the Mutual Security program, as proposed in the budget message.

“Persons who have escaped from totalitarian oppression, often at great peril, and refugees uprooted by war and disaster deserve further support in 1956 through programs administered by the United States, the United Nations, and the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration,” the President stated. “One of the unique, least expensive, and most fruitful aspects of the Mutual Security program is the participation, largely in humanitarian projects, of 47 voluntary organizations representing millions of our citizens.

“These organizations do an exceptionally effective work in helping the escapees and refugees become self-supporting,” he said. “They distribute large quantities of food on a people-to-people basis. But certain costs for transporting food, and for supplies beyond their own voluntary resources, are needed and should be provided.”