Germany Reported “Willing” to Make Offer to Israel

An official spokesman of the West German Government said yesterday that Germany was willing to make a concrete offer to Israel as a result of the decision taken by the Israel Parliament, the New York Times reported today from Bonn. The report did not indicate as to when such an offer would be made.

The report said that echoing the resolution adopted this week by the Israel Parliament not to resume the reparations talks until a definite offer is made by the Bonn Government, Dr. Kurt Schumacher, leader of the powerful Social Democratic opposition, issued a statement demanding that the Bonn Government make "a concrete, satisfactory and serious" offer to Israel. In addition, Dr. Schumacher challenged the Bonn Government’s view that the Israeli reparations negotiations and the London conference on external debts were interdependent.

The report stated that Herman J. Abs, who is the head of the West German delegation at the London conference, said in an interview that he and his German colleagues were in full agreement, as was the Bonn Government, that claims by Israel and non-governmental Jewish groups were basically different, but he stressed that "something not generally understood, even by our own politicians, is that there is only one capacity to pay and only one technique for transferring funds." Herr Abs said it was his firm belief that both problems, the settling of Germany’s pre-war commercial debts and post-war reparations to Israel, would be satisfactorily solved "but they can only be solved together and if one fails the other will fail also."

ISRAEL’S CHANCES WERE BETTER TWO YEARS AGO

The New York Times correspondent in Bonn, Jack Raymond, added in his report that those Germans who, shocked by the magnitude of world opinion arrayed against them, would have supported reparations for Israel as a matter of diplomatic expediency, now appear satisfied that they are recovering sufficiently in major projects with the Western Allies–the Contractual Agreement, the European Army, the Council of Europe and the Schuman Plan for integrating Western Europe’s steel and coal output.

"Most observers here agree Israel would have been far more successful in her approach for reparations if she had initiated it two years ago." the correspondent said. "At that time Israel might have obtained suitable financial commitments that the Allies might have been prepared to support. As it is, reliable sources disclose, only the United States has displayed more than a casual interest in the subject." Mr. Raymond reported.