Secretary of State John Foster Dulles told his press conference today that he did not think it was proper for him to discuss the resumption of economic aid to Israel because the United Nations Security Council is now considering the report of Gen. Vagn Bennike, United Nations truce supervision chief.
Mr. Dulles said that since the issue involving Israel is before what he described as the proper judicial channels it was obviously inappropriate for him to comment. He declined to discuss with newsmen his meetings yesterday with parties who asked him to resume aid to Israel. Nor would he say under what circumstances the United States would resume assistance to Israel. The Secretary pointed out that no specific sum was designated by Congress for Israel, only a share in a lump sum for the area of the Near East and Africa.
Rep. Hugh Scott, of Pennsylvania, former Republican national chairman and now a leader of the pro-Eisenhower forces in the House, today made known that he has wired Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., American delegate at the United Nations Security Council, that the “action of the State Department in cutting off participation of Israel in economic aid before the United Nations Security Council had an opportunity to consider the entire case greatly concerns many Americans.”
Rep. Scott told Mr. Lodge that the American position “should be based on fair play for both sides particularly in view of the long record of bipartisan support for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine and more recently for the State of Israel. ” Mr. Lodge was urged to have the Security Council “exhaustively consider the entire matter of Arab-Israel relations and use its full power and prestige to bring about permanent peace in the Middle East. “
ISRAELIS VOICE OBJECTIONS TO RIEGELMAN’S STATEMENT
Israel Embassy sources said today that the statement issued yesterday by Harold Riegelman, Republican mayoralty candidate in New York City, following his conference with Secretary Dulles, contained elements of distortion and prejudgment of the issue which is now before the United Nations Security Council. These sources specifically referred to the section in his remarks in which Mr.Riegelman referred to an alleged finding on September 23 by Gen. Vagn Bennike “that the Upper Jordan dam and irrigation project violated the Israel-Syrian armistice.”
It was also noted that Mr. Riegelman’s reference that the alleged violation would not interfere with Point Four aid, but would postpone additional aid was virtually meaningless because of the very small amount of Point Four aid and very large amount of mutual security economic aid which is involved.
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