U.S. to Send Emergency Aid to Israel Under Mutual Security Act

An interim arrangement to send emergency aid to Israel to meet desperate needs in advance of the bulk of the approximately $65,000,000 provided for in the Mutual Security Act of 1951 may be made known by the Technical Cooperation Administration this week, it was learned today.

The transfer of the balance of the aid would await the negotiation of another agreement between the United States and Israel. The new agreement is described as only a formality covering the use and transfer of the aid.

Edwin A. Locke, Jr., special representative of the Secretary of State, left for the Near East today saying that he would try to protect cooperation among Near Eastern states in his efforts to reduce the Arab refugee problem through implementation–in cooperation with the United Nations agency for Arab refugees–of the aid program envisioned in the Mutual Security Act of 1951.

Mr. Locke, who has been assigned the task of coordinating American technical and economic assistance to Israel and the Arab states, said he will make his headquarters in Beirut. He will coordinate the distribution of $50,000 for Arab refugees, a like amount for Jewish refugees, and other sums contained in the $140,000,000 Near Eastern appropriations of the Mutual Security Act of 1951. The Coordinator stressed, however, that his job will be in the economic field as a “businessman” and that he was not immediately concerned with political considerations.

Mr. Locke declared he would meet in the Near East with Dr. Henry G. Bennett, Technical Cooperation Administrator, who will visit that area this month. Dr. Bennett’s itinerary, as announced by the Department of State, includes the Arab states of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq, but not Israel.