Washington. July 15
The foreign affairs committee of the House of Representatives today rejected the Administrations arguments and voted to withhold all American military aid from Greece until the Athens Government permitted the return of constitutional rule.

The committee also voted in secret session to suspend all military, economic and other assistance to Pakistan until President Nixon reported to Congress that the situation in East Pakistan had returned to normal.

The committee’s decision to withhold aid to Greece was approved by 17 votes to 12 in a vote on an amendment to the foreign aid Bill introduced by Mr Wayne Hays of Ohio. It reversed a vote yesterday under which a similar proposal, also introduced by Mr Hays, was narrowly defeated.

The only exception to the ban on aid to Greece would occur if the President made a formal finding that the continuation of assistance would be justified by the “overriding requirements of the national security of the United States”. This would not permit the aid level to be increased, however.

The Administration had requested $118m (about £49m) for military aid to Greece this year, a sharp increase over the $80m supplied last year. In asking for approval, the State Department had told the committee that the strategic importance of Greece outweighed the regime’s suspension of constitutional government and civil rights.
The amendment suspending aid to Pakistan was introduced by Mr Cornelius Gallagher of New Jersey, chairman of the sub-committee on Asian and Pacific affairs, and adopted by a 17 to 6 vote.

The committee then adopted a provision permitting the supply of food and humanitarian assistance to East Pakistan. The Administration had asked for $118m in economic assistance to Pakistan.

In addition, the committee refused to include a provision inserted in the last foreign aid Bill that would have granted South Korea $50m more in military assistance than the United States Government had requested.

Once the committee has completed action on the $3,300m Foreign Aid Authorization Bill it will go to the House floor for passage. Then it will go to the Senate for approval, where similar moves to cut aid to Greece and Pakistan are already under consideration.

In deciding to ban aid to Greece, the committee was apparently influenced by disclosures today that the United States Government had advocated ending such assistance as long ago as 1963.

A leader of the Greek resistance movement in the United States. Mr Elias Demetracopoulos, sent a letter this morning to Mr Benjamin Rosenthal of New York, chairman of the House sub-committee on Europe, releasing two previously secret documents.

The first, a confidential 1963 aide-mémoire from the State Department to the Greek Government, gave a warning that after 1964 “the United States contemplates no further special assistance to the Greek defence budget”.

A report by Mr Richard Westebbe, the American executive director of the foreign trade administration at the time, was the second document. It stated that “the United States should not be the only, or even the major, contributor of economic and military aid to Greece”. A larger share of the burden, it said, should be borne by other countries, “thereby releasing more aid funds for more urgent cases”.

Athens. July 15.—The Greek Government tonight declined to comment on the decision by the House committee to cut off American military aid.