The Israel Cabinet, at its regular weekly meeting today, heard reports on the German reparations parts presented by Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett and Dr. Nahum Goldmann, who signed the agreements on behalf of the Israel Government and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims, respectively.
The government is determined to use the German reparations shipments only for developmental purposes, a government spokesman declared after the session. This, however, does not preclude the possibility of purchasing consumer goods and using funds realized from their sale in Israel for developmental purposes. The government has decided to establish a special company to act as its purchasing agent from Germany, with a board of directors on which will be included representatives of the Jewish Agency, Histadrut, manufacturers and financial institutions, the spokesman said.
He revealed that the government had also appointed a nine-man oil control board on which the government will have four representatives and the public, five. The council will probably be under the direction of Israel Kosloff, the government’s advisor on fuel.
Regret that Israel had entered into an agreement with Germany was expressed here in a resolution adopted by the national General Zionist Council. German reparations payments will undoubtedly ease difficulties in the Israel economic situation, at least for the time, Dr. Emanuel Neumann, told the session, but he said, “I must caution against the illusion that the payments or goods expected from Germany will solve financial and economic problems to any substantial extent,”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
