Silver Says Britain Seeking “international Sanction” from U.N. for Violation of Mandate

Charging Britain with placing the Palestine issue before the United Nations with the aim of obtaining “international sanction for a policy which it pursues in violation of the Mandate.” Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, chairman of the American section of the Jewish Agency, told a press conference today that the “Jewish people look to the U.S. delegation to assume an active role to ensure a speedy and equitable solution.”

Moshe Shertok, chief of the Agency political department, who was also present, stated in reply to a question as to whether the Agency would favor an international trusteeship that it would welcome any international arrangement “which would enable us to exercise our rights under the Mandate as originally intended.” If the U.N. is not ready to sanction such an arrangement, the Agency, he said, would then demand immediate independence,” if the U.N. is willing to relinquish authority over Palestine and the British are willing to surrender the Mandate.

Dr. Silver labelled a “strange proceeding” the action of Britain in asking the U.N. to reopen the Palestine question. “A trustee who has been faithless to his trust now sits in the parliament of nations and proposes that he be freed from his obligations and permitted to carry on as he pleases in the future,” he said. “This move is surely inconsistent with the Charter of the United Nations which proclaims the determination of the peoples to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained.”

DEMANDS ASSEMBLY GIVE PRIORITY TO AGENCY REQUEST FOR REPRESENTATION

He demanded that one of the first questions to be taken up by the General Assembly be the seating of the Jewish Agency, since there can be no free debate while one of the vitally interested parties is barred. He also demanded that if the Arab states or Britain are represented on the inquiry committee to be established, the Agency be given equal representation.

If the U.N. is to make a searching inquiry into the Palestine problem, the fact-finding commission must look into the dereliction of its duty by Britain, make an on-the-spot investigation of what the Jews have achieved in Palestine and visit the camps for displaced Jews in Europe, Dr. Silver declared. Pending the results of such an inquiry, Britain should allow free immigration into the Holy Land, he added.

He declared that if the agenda of the special session is to include any other questions besides the establishment of an inquiry committee, “the most urgent question is the opening of Palestine at once.” He pointed out that this has been urged by the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, the British Labor Party before it came to power and by President Truman and Congress.

“The United States has always taken a sympathetic interest in Jewish aspirations in Palestine,” the Agency spokesman said. “The Jewish people everywhere in the world have been keenly appreciative of that interest. With the reference of the Palestine question to the United Nations, the Jewish people look to the United States delegation to assume an active role to ensure a speedy and equitable solution in conformity with the position taken by the President and the Congress of the United States. We deem this of great importance because a special responsibility rests upon the United States to offer constructive leadership in a matter with which it has been actively concerned over a long period of time.”