President Eisenhower indicated today in a report to Congress on the Mutual Security program that the U.S. is inclined to continue its program of financial and technical aid to the Near East, while “avoiding any unwanted interference” in area political disputes.
Regarding these disputes, among which he numbered the Arab-Israel differences, the President said: “We have been ready at all times, however, to aid in finding peaceful solutions, and our good offices have always been available to interested parties.”
On the Arab-Israel problem, the report noted: “There is the bitter feeling between the Arab nations and Israel. The Arab people feel that Israel will expand to threaten their interest and territories. The Israelis feel that the Arabs may try to clamp a military vise on their country and ultimately squeeze it out of existence. Animosities are further intensified by the Arab refugee problem.”
“Despite the heavy frictions within the area,” the President said further in his report, “the peoples of the Near East share common aspirations for better living standards, and these aspirations can no longer be ignored. Of course, it is the governments and the peoples themselves who must carry forward the task of bringing about a better way of life. The United States, however, can offer useful assistance, not with expenditures of dollars alone, but by demonstrating practicable applications of modern knowledge to problems of irrigation, disease control, food growing, and other specific fields.”
The President said Secretary of State Dulles’ visit to the Near East in May “made a deep and favorable impression on its people.” Mr. Dulles’ “frank and intimate discussions with political leaders of each country proved fruitful and beneficial to all concerned,” the report stated. “We learned much of their point of view, and they in turn became better informed on United States intentions and attitudes. “
REPORTS ON $70,200,000 APPROPRIATED FOR ISRAEL THIS YEAR
Of $70,200,000 in special aid funds appropriated by Congress for Israel in the 1953 fiscal year, the report said, the largest portion, $23,000,000, went for foodstuffs. About $11,500,000 was expended on irrigation equipment, and for housing construction under resettlement and capital development expenditures totalled $25,600,000, according to the report.
The report, for the six months ended last June 30, in referring to some $60,000,000 made available by Congress for Palestine refugee relief, mentioned steps being taken by the Egyptian and Syrian Governments towards helping the refugees located in their countries. “The Egyptian Government has made a proposal for aiding the refugees in the Gaza area through the irrigation of a portion of the Sinai Peninsula with Nile River water,” the report said. “Preliminary engineering reports are favorable, and the technical surveys are now being carried out with the cooperation and support of the Egyptian Government.”
The report noted that “additional tracts of land have been designated by the Syrian Government for possible development for the benefit of refugees. Reclamation of lands already made available by the government is under way, using the labor of the refugees themselves.”
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