Czech Delegate Attacks Britain at U.N. for Refusing to Enforce Palestine Solution

An attack on Great Britain for refusing to enforce any United Nations solution for Palestine except on her own terms, was made before the Ad Hoc Palestine Committee today by Karel Lisicky, speaking for Czechoslovakia.

Lisicky was followed by Lebanese delegate Camille Chamoun, who described the UNSCOP partition proposals as “another Munich” and reiterated Arab opposition to the majority recommendations. Following Chamoun’s address, the Committee adjourned until Monday. Earlier, Chairman Herbert Evatt announced that the general debate, which began today, would have to terminate by next Thursday or Friday, since the Committee must report to the General Assembly by the beginning of the following week.

Emphasizing that the views of the great powers will be of primary and decisive importance in enforcement of a solution, Lisicky suggested two alternatives if the British persist in their policy: 1. Enforcement by some other great power or combination of powers. 2. Establishment of an international force under United Nations supervision to undertake enforcement.

Lisicky said that the situation after the statements of the parties concerned seems no closer to a solution than before. Without being unduly pessimistic, he declared, in the light of the British policy, the political task of attaining a solution acceptable to Jews and Arabs approaches at the present moment the geometrical operation known as equaring the circle. He also criticized the Arab Higher Committee, declaring that its uncompromising stand did not facilitate the handling of the problem by the U.N.

LEBANESE DELEGATE SCORES BOUNDARIES OF PROPOSED ARAB STATE

Chamoun was particularly bitter in denouncing the boundaries and territory of the proposed Arab state, objecting especially to the inclusion of Jaffa, Haifa, Bathsheba, Tiberious and other areas in the Jewish state. The 6,000 square miles assigned to the Jews and the 4,000 to the Arabs, Chamoun said, reduces the Arab state “to a simple geographical expression with a Jewish majority.”

Chamoun further asserted that the Jewish state would contain a majority Arab population which would be subjected to economic discrimination, and would be excluded from the land. The Zionists would have the commanding political and economic position in Palestine, he said, declaring that it is “unpermissible” to allow the creation of a theocratic state. He warned that partition would create a new cause of friction, asserting that the last war was born in the Danzig corridor.

Chamoun repeated the usual Arab denunciation of Jewish immigration to Palestine, declaring that the Zionists were responsible for it and for the “fiction” of the economic absorptive capacity of Palestine.