Israel’s Premier Says General Elections Will Be Carried out in a “fair Way”

An exchange of letters between President Weizmann and Premier Ben Gurion over the formation of a stable government was released here last night in connection with the announcement that the outgoing Cabinet would remain in office until elections could be held.

The President’s missive urged the Premier to make every attempt to form a stable government capable of gaining the confidence of Parliament and thus avoiding elections. Mr. Ben Gurion replied by analyzing the current political situation, reporting the failure of all attempts to form a stable government and expressing the hope that the general elections would be carried out in a “fair way.”

Anticipating general elections in June, the executive committee of the leftwing Socialist Mapam today decided to hold a convention of the party in April. All members of the Hashomer Hatzair faction voted in favor of this decision and of a system of election of delegates to the convention on the basis of proportional representation from each of the three groups of which the Mapam is composed. The other two factions abstained in the final vote on the entire matter.

Meanwhile, leaders of industry in Israel were told today by a government representative that the present world price situation offers Israeli industry a unique opportunity to close the gap between imports and exports. This view was expressed by David Horowitz, director-general of the Treasury Department, addressing a conference of Israeli exporters.

Mr. Horowitz said that the government is making every effort possible to assure a steady supply of raw materials for Israeli enterprises. At the same time, it was revealed at the conference that the amount of currency in circulation in Israel has increased from 75,000,000 pounds to 77,000,000 in one week.