Czechoslovakian Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk and Polish Ambassador Josef Winiewicz, speaking today at the U.N. Ad Hoc Committee on Palestine, indicated that their governments will support proposals for the partitioning of Palestine, with certain reservations.
The Czechoslovak delegate emphasized that he is not giving an “over-all approval to the majority report” of the U.N. Special Committee on Palestine. “There are many items,” he said, “which should be discussed honestly and carefully and where some changes could be undertaken. But compared with the minority UNSCOP report, it seems to me that the compromise proposed by the majority comes nearer to giving at least partial satisfaction to the natural claims of both parties and to a possibility of being realized.”
The Polish delegate said that his government would prefer to see a bi-national state in Palestine, but that the antagonism between Arabs and Jews was too great for the creation of a bi-national state at the present time. The United Nations, he declared, should therefore “concentrate on an analysis of the UNSCOP majority recommendations.” He attached particular importance to the recommendation on economic unity between the two projected states and expressed the opinion that close economic cooperation between Jews and Arabs, plus the elimination of foreign interference, might constitute a sound foundation for a future Jewish and Arab rapprochement.
EL SALVADOR PROPOSES ARAB-JEWISH CONFERENCE UNDER U.N. AUSPICES
The first draft resolutions to be brought before the Ad Hoc Committee were presented today by El Salvador and Columbia, for future consideration.
El Salvador proposed that the Jewish Agency and the Palestine Arab Higher Committee appoint three representatives each to confer under U.N. auspices to make every effort to find common ground for an agreement on a Palestine solution, and report their recommendations through the Ad Hoc Committee to the General Assembly.
Colombia’s draft resolution, preliminarily proposed, but to be formally introduced perhaps tomorrow, calls for the creation of a sub-committee to implement recommendation six of the UNSCOP report dealing with an international arrangement for the disposal of the problem of the displaced Jews.
Egyptian representative Mahmoud Bey Fawzi, reiterating the Arab argument that “Palestine is not and cannot be the answer to the Jewish question,” called on the nations of the world to dispose of the DP question, and to uproot racial persecution and discrimination. Palestine, he asserted, is already overcrowded and the establishment of a Jewish state there would be a “fantasy and prelude to endless strife.”
Following the Egyptian representative, Dr. Herbert Evatt, Australian chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee, suggested that, parallel with the continuing general debate tomorrow, the committee fix a time limit for their receipt of specific proposals to be considered by the committee, and suggested Monday night.
BRITAIN HAS NOT FULFILLED ITS OBLIGATIONS IN PALESTINE, WINIEWICZ CHARGES
Ambassador Winiewicz, speaking as head of the Polish delegation to the U.N., charged the British Government with not fulfilling its obligations as the mandatory power in Palestine. He expressed regret that a statement made by British Colonial Secretary Arthur Creech-Jones at the Ad Hoc Committee did not give a clear indication of Britain’s intentions regarding Palestine. However, he welcomed the fact that the British Government is ready to surrender the Palestine Mandate and to withdraw its troops from the country.
Referring to the part of the UNSCOP report which says that “it is manifestly impossible to satisfy fully, claims of one at the expense of the other,” the Polish representative said that in effect this means that a compromise solution must be sought.
The Polish delegation, he said, had underlined on more than one occasion its interest in the aspirations of the Arab people in their desire to establish economic independence, in particular in connection with the oil resources of the territories of those states. However, it also felt it necessary to deal adequately with the needs of the Jewish community as well. It should not be forgotten, he stressed, that Jews had been given certain rights in Palestine recognized by many international documents.
POLAND ASKS FOR IMMEDIATE ADMISSION OF JEWS TO PALESTINE
The Polish delegation, Winiewicz continued, fully supports the unanimous UNSCOP recommendation to the effect that the General Assembly undertake immediately the initiation and execution of an international arrangement whereby the problem of distressed European Jews would be dealt with as a matter of extreme urgency. This task, he stated, could and ought to be solved first of all by Jewish immigration into Palestine. The U.N., he said, should solemnly repeat the promise made in the covenant of the League and open immediately the doors of Palestine for Jewish immigrants.
He then referred to a statement by the Royal Commission which said “the Arabs have shared to a considerable degree in material benefits which Jewish immigration has brought to Palestine,” and urged that the U.N. seek a solution, which would “terminate the endless wanderings of those who escaped gas chambers” and which would determinate a situation in which the problem of Palestine “served as a subject of bargaining for interests which had nothing to do with the well-being of Jews and Arabs.”
Stressing that six million Jews were massacred by the Nazis in Europe, the Polish representative declared: “We cannot help stating our great regret, that anti-Semitism which has led to the mass murders of Hitler and his associations is still claiming victims and finding followers, even today. It would be a fundamental mistake if the United Nations closed its eyes to this phenomenon. All of us here should be concerned with the moral background of the problem before us and by creating proper conditions of life and work for Jews everywhere, the United Nations can prevent the possibility of repetition of the ghastly events of the past which resulted in the complicated problem before us. If we combat anti-Semitism, open possibilities of immigration for Jews to Palestine and elsewhere, if we draw the proper conclusions from the great tragedy of the Jewish community during World War II, if we draw the lessons from the past and events which had led to that tragedy, we shall be able to create a healthier atmosphere than that which still surrounds the Jewish problem in many a place today.”
U.N. DECISION ON PALESTINE MUST NOT BE DELAYED, MASARYK SAYS
Masaryk began his speech by stating that Creech-Jones’ declaration had changed the background of the Committee’s deliberations quite radically.
“With Great Britain ready to withdraw and not ready to implement alone any decision we may reach, it is very clear to me that our responsibility has been greatly increased and that we have to face it and not only to reach a decision, but also find methods of implementing it by the help of all of us once the General Assembly comes to a decision,” Masaryk said. “If that is not clearly understood and the decision and its implementation is delayed it means a still greater tension and chaos in Palestine and it will not enhance the prestige of our organization and, it seems to me, that some prestige and success would not do the United Nations any harm at this time.”
After underlining the diametrical opposition of Arabs and Jews, as revealed in their statements, the Czechoslovak representative said that going back over the past thirty years to determine all the mistakes made during that period, was not a very constructive approach to any problem. The Jews, he said, were given international guarantees and assurances, and they entered into them in good faith. The solution of the Palestine question was an integral part of the Jewish question, he added.
Masaryk also declared that, while illegal immigration and acts of terrorism were condemnable, “desperate, hunted people do not always behave like saints.” He condemned the Arab threats of war heard in connection with the Palestine problem.
JEWS WILLING TO CONFER WITH ARABS; TALKS “USELESS,” SAYS HUSSEINI
A Jewish Agency spokesman, commenting on the El Salvador resolution, said that the Jews are at all times ready to enter into talks with the Arabs seeking a solution. Speaking for the Arab Higher Committee, Jamal Husseini declared such talks are “useless” and that there is no basis for discussion.
The 17-man political advisory committee of the Jewish Agency, created at the last meeting of the Zionist Actions Committee at Zurich to advise the executive on presentation of the Jewish case to the U.N., began its deliberations tonight at the Agency offices in New York.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
