Active French participation in Israel’s heavy industry, including railway construction, consideration of a new oil pipeline, and building of an overhead trolley for the transport of potash, will be recommended in Paris by the French delegation of representatives of banking, finance and engineering which today completed a weeks inspection of this country’s industries.
The delegation, headed by Emile Roche, chairman of the French National Economic Council, disclosed its plans for French industrial participation in this country at a press conference prior to departure for home. The delegation’s final formal visit was to the home of Israel President Itzhak Ben Zvi. After that visit, Mrs. Golda Meir, Foreign Minister, entertained M. Roche and his colleagues at a luncheon.
Expressing his “deep admiration for Israeli achievements, M. Roche said he foresees now “a glowing future of increased exchange” between his country and Israel. The main purpose of the visit, he said, was exploration of prospects of greater cooperation between France and Israel, and expansion of their trade in industry and agriculture.
The railway project foreseen by M. Roche would be the construction of a railroad running from Sodom to Elath to Beersheba. The Roche delegation inspected the port of Elath this morning, looked over the oil and oil pipeline installations in the Elath area, and inspected the “King Solomon” copper mines at Timma. “I find myself deeply imbued,” said M. Roche, “with the common fate and interests as between France and Israel.”
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