Premier Moshe Sharett flew today to Paris to confer with the Foreign Ministers of the United States, Britain and France on the war danger in the Middle East resulting from Czech arms shipments to Egypt, after which he will confer in Geneva with Soviet Foreign Minister V. M. Molotov. Just before boarding his plane at Lydda airport, Mr. Sharett told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he will explain Israel’s “needs and apprehensions” to the Big Four Foreign Ministers.
Before departing, Mr. Sharett presided over a Cabinet meeting which heard what he intended to tell the Foreign Ministers, and which approved temporary Cabinet changes necessitated by his trip and by the departure of Development Minister Dov Joseph, who went to the United States to assist the Israel bond drive. Finance Minister Levi Eshkol will take over as Acting Premier and Acting Development Minister, while Mrs. Golda Myerson will assume the role of Acting Foreign Minister. Mr. Sharett expects to be back in Jerusalem by next Saturday.
A government communique last night said that Mr. Sharett would meet with Messrs. John Foster Dulles, Harold MacMillan, Antoine Pinay and Molotov to discuss the “danger looming over Israel” as a result of Communist arming of Egypt. The communique further revealed that the Israel ambassadors to Washington, London, Paris and Rome would also meet with Mr. Sharett in Paris.
(The Sunday Times reported today that when the Western Foreign Ministers meet in Paris beginning tomorrow, in advance of meeting with Mr. Molotov in Geneva Thursday, first place on their agenda will be given to the threat of Soviet penetration of the Middle East. Reuters reported that the first shipment of Czech arms arrived in Alexandria Thursday aboard a Soviet freighter.)
United Nations truce supervisor Maj. Gen. E.L.M. Burns left for Damascus tonight, from where he will proceed to the United Nations headquarters in New York to confer on the situation with Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold. Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Moshe Dayan, Chief of Staff of Israel’s Army of Defense, was recalled from his tour of Europe last night, although he is still technically on leave.
(Israel Ambassador Abba Eban left the International Airport tonight for Paris, accompanied by Gideon Rafael, a member of Israel’s delegation to the UN who is also counsellor for Middle Eastern and United Nations Affairs in the Israel Foreign Ministry, to confer with Premier Sharett and other Israel diplomats.)
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
