John G. Diefenbaker, former Canadian Premier, said here last night that he favors moving the Canadian Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The 76-year-old former official who arrived for a 10-day visit as the guest of the Jewish National Fund, told a press conference convened by the JNF that he had begun to press for such a move since the Yom Kippur War.
He also told reporters that there is a real danger for a confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union and expressed concern that such event would “constitute an International threat.” Diefenbaker observed that the Russians are talking peace while they are doing everything that may cause a war. “The decision to provide Syria with long-range missiles is not consistent with talk about peace efforts,” he said. He warned that if hostilities are renewed in the Mideast “we shall be faced with a situation in which only optimists will discount a deterioration beyond the borders of the area.”
The former Premier also stated that he would do his utmost to convince the Canadian government to offer Israel a convenient loan so that she can purchase an atomic reactor in Canada. This reactor, he noted, may help solve Israel’s energy problems, and at the same time be used as a means to desalinate sea water.” Diefenbaker praised the contribution of the Canadian Jewish community.
The central event of his visit is the dedication of the Diefenbaker Parkway in the Jerusalem corridor. The parkway is part of the project financed by Canadian Jewry which will include more than one million trees, camping and picnic sites and forest roads. He said he was deeply touched having a parkway named after him. He is being escorted in his tour by 50 Canadian JNF leaders and contributors, most of them from Toronto.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
