Members of Congress, representing both parties, today issued a statement revealing that they had held a meeting with officials of the State Department from whom they sought assurances that the U.S. Government would not supply arms to the Arab states as long as their rulers refuse to make peace with Israel.
The statement does not indicate whether the desired assurances were secured. From diplomatic sources it was learned that Acting Secretary of State Walter Bedell Smith and Assistant Secretary of State Henry A. Byroade argued that American arms aid for Arab states is necessary for the “security” of the area. (The New York Times reported today that the two high officials of the State Department told the Congressmen that only “token” deliveries of arms have been considered.)
In their statement today, the Congressmen made it known that they expressed “concern over published reports that our government is proposing to use the military and appropriated for the Near East under the Mutual Security Act in part to give arms and other military aid to individual Arab states.”
“We expressed the fear,” said the Congressmen, “that such proposals may undermine rather than strengthen our defenses in this area. Furthermore, we pointed out that the Arab states show no desire to make peace with Israel, and there is every reason to fear, in view of mounting tension in the Middle East recently, that our arms may be used not to defend the Middle East against Communism, but for a renewal of warfare against Israel and even against some of our NATO allies who have interests in this region.
“The guns we give to the Arabs may be used not to advance the security of the area, not to promote peace and security, but to attack our own essential interests. At this time there is no dependable assurance to the contrary,” the Congressmen emphasized.
WANT U.S. TO BE FIRM ON EGYPT’S BLOCKADE AGAINST ISRAEL
The members of Congress also sought reassurance “that the Administration would maintain a firm position the current discussions in the Security Council designed to bring an end to the illegal Egyptian blockade of the Suez Canal and that the United States would take the position that whatever resolution is adopted on this subject by the Security Council should be implemented and enforced.”
Favoring a continuation of economic aid for the area, including the Arab states, the Congressmen expressed belief that the best way to strengthen the area against Communist subversion is to continue efforts to raise the depressed living standards of the Arab people. “Most of all,” said the Congressmen, “they need more bread and more land, not more guns.”
Those in attendance at the meeting with State Department officials were Senators Paul H. Douglas, III., Irving M. Ives, N.Y., and Herbert H. Lehman, N.Y., and Representatives Emanuel Celler, N.Y., Albert W. Cretella, Conn., Isidore Dollinger, N.Y., Sidney A. Fine, N.Y., Samuel N. Friedel, Md., Louis B. Heller, N.Y., Lester Holtzman, N.Y., Charles E. Howell, N.J., Jacob K. Javits, N.Y., Robert W. Kean, N.J., Kenneth B. Keating, N.Y., Edna F. Kelly, N.Y., Eugene J. Keough, N.Y., Arthur G. Klein, N.Y. Albert P. Morano, Conn., Abraham J. Multer, N.Y., Harold C. Ostertag, N.Y., Hugh Scott, Pa., and Horace Seely-Brown, Jr., Conn.
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