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Soviet Diplomats Increasingly Active in Arab States, Editors Invited to Visit USSR

May 17, 1945
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Soviet authorities have recently increased their propaganda activities in the Arab countries, it is learned here. They are especially active in Iraq, Syria and Egypt, and editors from those countries have been invited to visit Russia. Soviet diplomats frequently attend sessions of the various parliaments and the Russian ambassador was the only diplomat to attend recent Egyptian army maneuvers.

Meanwhile, Egyptian Minister of Finance, Makram Ebeid Pasha, speaking in the Chamber of Deputies yesterday, warned against the competition of Jewish industry and commerce in Palestine. Referring to the economic and commercial advantages which will evolve from the League of Arab States, Ebeid Pasha said that “I believe it to be my duty to warn the Arab countries – particularly Egypt – of what I expect and fear – powerful, unfair competition to our national industry from foreign industry which has been established in Palestine. I say foreign,” he continued, “because our local Israelite brethren, born in our country, are our compatriots and have the same rights and duties as we.”

Comparing the income of farmers in various countries, Ebeid Pasha said that while the Jewish agricultural laborer in Palestine earns an average of sixty pounds yearly, Arb farm workers in Palestine have an annual income of twenty-seven pounds, and those in Egypt twenty pounds.

Discussing the pan-Arab league further, the finance minister denied it had any religious content, and asserted that it was a patriotic movement achieved by patriots who see in their union a safeguard of their country against foreign supremacy.

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