North Vietnam’s Politburo chairman, Ho Chi Minh, suggested to David Ben-Gurion in 1946 that he proclaim a Jewish Government in Exile, and establish such a government’s headquarters in North Vietnam, Mr. Ben-Gurion revealed last night.
Addressing a rally here, at which the audience included many young people, most of them students, Israel’s former Prime Minister disclosed that information in telling of his meeting with Ho Chi Minh in Paris, where he and the North Vietnam leader lived at the same hotel. They had become “very friendly,” Mr. Ben-Gurion said and, in the course of one conversation, the North Vietnam leader made that suggestion after Mr. Ben-Gurion had told him of the Jewish problem. “For obvious reasons,” Mr. Ben-Gurion stated, “this was unacceptable.”
Mr. Ben-Gurion said that he felt that, if he should write to Ho Chi Minh, the latter might invite him to visit North Vietnam. The former Prime Minister discussed many other issues in the course of the meeting. Concerning possible immigration of Russian Jews, he said “there is constant action” in the Soviet Union, adding that “Russia is not blind to world public opinion.” Asked whether he thought Israel should take steps to increase its birth rate, he declared: “If the Government should take such measures, it must attempt also to encourage an increase in the birth rate among the Arabs in Israel.”
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