U.S. Action in Korea Avoided New World War, Ben Gurion Says;seeks $1,000,000,000 Loan

Although the danger of a new world war has been averted through the action of the United Nations and the United States in Korea, there is still the possibility of a major conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union, where most of the Jews of the world live today.

This opinion was expressed here today by Premier David Ben Gurion addressing the four-day conference of the Mapai, Israel’s Labor Party, of which he is the leader. It is for this reason, he pointed out, that the people of Israel owe double allegiance — to the state of Israel and to the Jewish people abroad.

The Israel Premier estimated that intensive immigration of Jews from various countries to Israel within the next three years and the absorption of the immigrants, will cost about $1,500,000,000. To this sum the Israel Government is prepared to contribute one-third, while one billion dollars must be raised by world Jewry through a huge loan outside of United Jewish Appeal contributions.

“The state of Israel,” Mr. Ben Gurion said, “and the people of Israel are pledged to the suprems task of receiving and settling during the coming years the remainder of the Jews from the Levant and from East European countries as long as the frontiers of these countries are open. This target calls for a speedy and planned development of the country on the basis of maintaining the independence of Israel and Socialist-Zionist hegemony in the state and within the nation.”

SCORES LEFT-WING GROUP; SAYS POPULATION INCREASE IS ESSENTIAL

The Israel Premier branded the left-wing Socialist Hashomer Hatzair as a dissident group hesitating between socialism and sovereignty of another motherland. He warned that Israel is still in danger, with enemy countries controlling an area 200 times and a population 45 times larger than that of the Jewish state. The security of Israel, he declared, must therefore be safeguared not only by strengthening the country’s defenses and by armament, but by an increase in population. The government’s pledge to double the population is being fulfilled in a manner unprecedented in Jewish history, he pointed out.

Finance Minister Eliezer Kaplan told the conference that two alternatives are now available to Israel — restriction of immigration or rationing of civilian requirements. He appealed to workers in the Jewish state to “produce better and cheaper” goods. He also warned that the Israel Government is considering the freezing of all dividends, intensification of economic controls and curtailing of imports.

Berl Locker, Jewish Agency executive chairman, declared that “every Jew is responsible for financing immigration to Israel, which must be given priority over local institutions’ needs.”