If British troops withdraw from Palestine following a decision to partition the country, the U.N. should either establish an international commission, with an international police force, to govern the country in the transition period before statehood, or should turn over administration of the Jewish areas to the Jewish Agency, Dr. Chaim Weizmann said today.
The Zionist leader, who arrived on the Queen Mary for a tour of the country on behalf of the Weizmann Institute of Science and the United Jewish Appeal, said that the international control commission, if formed, should consist of the U.S. and other governments, and perhaps include Britain. If it is impossible to set up such a commission, the Jews could take over administration immediately on the heels of the British withdrawal.
Dr. Weizmann said that establishment of governmental machinery for a Jewish state would be relatively simple, since it would only require expansion of the Jewish Agency to embrace departments which are now the prerogative of the government. He envisaged a purely Jewish executive branch with a legislature consisting of both Arabs and Jews, based on their proportion in the population.
Dr. Weizmann said that he believed that “close economic cooperation” between Jews and Arabs would grow out of partition. Despite the great sacrifice it means to Jews, partition is the best solution under the circumstances, he added, “because it is final” and can lead to the establishment of “stable relations” in Palestine.
He expressed gratification at the united front that American Jewry has presented on the Palestine issue, and stressed that it would be necessary to implement that solidarity with economic aid.
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.
