Shazar Leaves London; Returns to Israel from Churchill’s Funeral

Israeli President Zalman Shazar, who, together with former Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, took part in the funeral rites for Winston Churchill, left here today for Israel after attending a reception in his honor given by Ambassador Arthur Lourie. Mr. Ben-Gurion will remain here until Tuesday.

In a press conference at his hotel here, President Shazar hailed the “greatness” of the late British leader, who, he said, was not only “the roar of the fighting British lion” but also “the roar of humanity fighting and in distress. We Jews were in deeper distress–and his voice was our cry.”

Mr. Shazar said that he was impressed by the numbers of Jews and Israeli students who greeted him as he walked to the funeral. He could not ride because of the Sabbath. The President’s aide, Col. Aryeh Raz, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that Mr. Shazar had not been tired at all during the walk at a brisk pace. President Shazar had to turn down an invitation to attend a reception by the Queen in Buckingham Palace since it was felt that the additional long walk would tire him too much.

Addressing a number of Israeli editors who had come to London to attend the funeral, Mr. Shazar reminded the group of the World Zionist Congress statements calling on the Israeli press to devote more attention to informing their readers about Jewish activities in countries outside of Israel. Asserting that the papers’ correspondents do not give sufficient space to such activities in their dispatches, President Shazar cited as an example the fact that the American correspondents of the papers were generally stationed in Washington instead of New York where the main center of American Jewish population is located.