New Israel Cabinet Holds First Meeting; Discusses Reorganization

The new Israeli Cabinet today paid a visit to President Chaim Weizmann and its members were presented to him by Premier David Ben Gurion. The Cabinet held its first meeting today and discussed the reorganization of certain ministries.

Such reorganization has become necessary in view of the fact that the Ministry of Immigration is being dissolved and its duties are being taken over by other ministries. Similarly, the functions of the old Ministry of Agriculture are being split up between the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the new Ministry of Agriculture.

(The new coalition government of Israel, composed of the Mapai and the Religious Bloc, is endangering the Jewish state because of its dependence for a parliamentary majority on five Arab votes in the Knesset, Leo Wolfson, chairman of the National Council of Zionist-Revisionists of America, said in a statement to the press today. The new Cabinet received a vote of confidence in the Knesset Monday. The vote was 56 to 40)

A party of 144 Iranian Jews arrived at Haifa this morning aboard a Turkish vessel. The Persian Jewish immigrants, all of whom had travelled via Turkey, arrived with a large quantity of luggage and personal effects. A majority of the party was composed of young and middle aged people.

The immigrants currently arriving from Rumania are presenting the settlement authorities and institutions in Israel with a major problem because they are mostly of an age group whose members are unfit for the work of settling new land. A predominant group among the immigrants is made up of old people, widows and hard core cases of one sort or another.