Congress Asked to Vote $76,000,000 for Israel Refugee Aid

Legislation prepared by the Administration to implement President Truman’s Mutual Security Aid program and asking $76,000,000 for the relief and resettlement of Jewish immigrants in Israel was presented today to a joint meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The measure also asks for the payment of $65,000,000 to the United Nations for the resettlement of Arab refugees in Arab lands, It totals $141,000,000 of the $196,000,000 asked for the Near East for the 1953 fiscal year by President Truman last week in his Mutual Security Aid message. The remaining $55,000,000 is expected to be distributed to Iran and among the Arab states engaged in resettling the Arab refugees.

Secretary of State Dean Acheson, testifying on the Mutual Security program, told the joint session that “the problem which confronts Israel and those which face the U.N. and the Arab states giving asylum to the Arab refugees have been ameliorated but are not yet solved. The solution of these problems with all of their connotations of human suffering, and the establishment of stable conditions are still important in the hearts and minds of the people of the United States.

“Therefore,” he added, “we are proposing the extension of the program inaugurated this year for the relief and resettlement of refugees into Israel and we are proposing a contribution to the United Nations fund for the relief and resettlement of the Arab refugees from Palestine and an appropriate program of aid to the Arab states concentrating on those sheltering the refugees in order to provide a setting in which reintegration can take place.” W. Averill Harriman, head of the Mutual Security Aid program, also testified for the bill.