Committee Begins Discussions in Geneva on Solution of Palestine Problem

Simultaneously with the arrival of news of the arrest of a number of Jewish mayors in Palestine, members of the United Nations Special committee on Palestine began today the first of a long series of meetings in an attempt to find a solution to the Palestine problem.

There are today two schools of thought in the ranks of UNSCOP. One is that ## committee should begin by discussing various historical and factual aspects of Palestine and, for example, the legality of the Balfour Declaration, the significance the mandate, and the meaning of the phrase “Jewish national home.”

The other school holds that UNSCOP should begin by the immediate discussion ## a solution by the establishment of a Jewish state, an Arab state and partition, and ### issues as federalization, nationalism and trusteeship, and reaching a proposed ##lution by process of elimination after full discussion.The correspondent of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency learns that Justice Emil ##ndstroem, UNSCOP chairman, has presented a 30-page survey of the historical and regal problems affecting Palestine, on which he had been working several days, with the suggestion that it be the basis of the Committee’s discussions.However, Justice I.G. Rand of Canada, Sir Abdur Rahman of India and other members of the group moved that it would be better for everyone to discuss possible ##olutions of the problem in the frankest spirit, since to discuss the Sandstroem surely without knowing everyone’s real views would be tantamount to deceiving one another, it was felt.Accordingly, the meetings hereafter will consist of the frankest, informal talks with the smallest possible group. The secretariat members will be absent, except for the translators, and no record of the discussions will be taken.

The French-language Courier de Geneve has just published an interview with Haj Amin el Husseini, the exiled ex-Mufti of Jerusalem, who said that if partition were to be the UNSCOP recommendation, the Arabs would fight it by all means at their disposal. He stated that the Arabs want an all-Arab state of Palestine although a brief transitional period might be necessary.”