Secretary of State George C. Marshall, at his ?ress conference today, said that there was no change in U.S. policy with regard to sifting the embargo on shipment of arms to Palestine. The whole Palestine matter is under constant consideration, he added.
(The N.Y. Times, in a report from Washington today, said that there are Indications that the United State would be prepared to lift the arms embargo, should the U.N. Palestine Commission, or the Security Council, recommend that member states of the United Nations help arm a Jewish militia, and should the British agree to accept and hold these arms for the Jews until after May 15, when the mandate expires. Washington officials, the report said, estimate that the Haganah is able to hold out for about a year against anything except a major invasion by Arab states, but agree nonetheless that a third force would be necessary to prevent fighting between Jewish and Arab militias after May 15.)
Secretary Marshall revealed that the decision on the instructions to be given to the American delegates to the Security Council regarding Palestine has just about been reached and the first public announcement of American intentions would be made by the U.S. delegation at the United Nations. He declined emphatically to give any indication of what the instructions will be.
Marshall expressed, the opinion that the United Nations would not be destroyed as a result of inability to deal effectively with the Palestine issue, but qualified this by saying that he thought action on Palestine is of vast importance to the effectiveness and existence of the United Nations.
The Secretary was questioned as to whether United States policy will be based on the assumption that the British will leave Palestine on May 15. In some heat he replied that he would not announce either assumptions or instructions.
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.
