Jewish Director Forced To Resign

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30311, 11 December 1963, Page 10

Jewish Director Forced To Resign

(N Z.P. A .-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, December 10. The Foreign Office yesterday protested strongly against Arab interference in British domestic affairs. The Deputy-Foreign Minister, Lord Carrington, made the protest at a 40-minute meeting with the Ambassadors of Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Libya amid a political row over a Jewish director’s resignation from the Norwich Union insurance firm.

The company confirmed last week that the director, Lord Mancroft, a former Minister, had resigned after Arab representations. Lord Carrington told the ambassadors Britain “strongly disapproved” of action by Arab embassies in London de. signed to bring pressure on British firms t~ comply with the Arab boycott of Israel. In particular, the Government “strongly resented” pressures on British firms to discriminate on any grounds among their British staff. The Government hoped these practices would not continue. Lord Carr'ngton said the Government had no wish to takes sides in the Arab-Israel dispute. The points he wished to make were based solely on opposition to outside interference in British domestic affairs and British firms’ freedom to trade. The ambassadors had called on Lord Carrington at their own request. They told the Foreign Office they were acting on behalf of Arab envoys in London. They wished to explain their position on the Israel boycott in the light of the recent interest in Lord Mancroft’s resignation. An Iraqi Embassy official, Mr Edw'ard Attiyah, said on a television programme tonight that Lord Mancroft’s resignation had to be viewed in the context of the general Near East situation. “The Arabs were not interested in Lord Mancroft’s activities in the Norwich Union but they were interest-

ed in Lord Mancroft, who is chairman of several companies that were actively and closely connected with the building up of the Israeli economy,” he said. The existence of Israel constituted a menace to other Arab states, he said. A leading British Jew and former Labour member of Parliament Mr Maurice Orbach, told Mr Attiyah: “X ou are trying to influence British businessmen in order that they may stop trading with countries in which they have a perfectly good market.” Mr Attiyah: “If you want to trade with us then a condition is that you must not trade with Israel.”