Renault’s Letter Breaking Contact with Israel Shown First to Arabs

The Lebanese Embassy here revealed that the Renault automobile company in France had first submitted to the Arab League its letter suspending relationship with the Kaiser-Frazer firm in Haifa before sending the letter to Israel.

An Embassy official is reported to have stated that when the Renault Company pledged to the boycott committee of the Arab League that it will suspend its relationship with Kaiser-Frazer, the Arab League was not satisfied with that pledge. In order to certify to the Arabs the sincerity of its undertaking the management of Renault handed the letter to the Lebanese Embassy. The Embassy requested a formal authentication to the signatures of the two general managers of Renault. The letter was then authenticated by the police and was delivered to the Lebanese Embassy to be sent through its diplomatic pouch to the boycott committee of the Arab League in Cairo.

The letter was returned from Cairo to Paris again through the Lebanese diplomatic courier, the Embassy official stated. It was only then that the letter was mailed to Kaiser-Frazer in Israel. This explains why the envelope carrying a letter dated September 10, 1959, had the Paris post office seal of October 6. It also explains why the letter was not sent from Biancourt where the Renault offices are, but from the Victor Hugo post office which is next to the Lebanese Embassy.

(The latest issue of the Egyptian newspaper Al-Akhbar which has just been received in New York reports an announcement by Mr. Daumal, the head of the French Economic Mission in Egypt stating that the French automobile firm Renault intends to establish an assembly plant of automobiles in Egypt. The program is to start with small-scale production immediately and to progress further to full capacity.)