The Palestine question took a new and sudden ## today when U.S. delegate Warren P. Austin laid a proposal before the Big Powers it an interim United Nations trusteeship for Palestine be established, thus virtual? scrapping the partition decision of the General Assembly.
The American delegate said he will ask the Security Council to call a special session of the Assembly in order that the new regime for Palestine can be established take effect May 15, upon the termination of the British Mandate.
Immediate objections to the U.S. proposal were raised by Soviet delegate ?drei Gromyko, who saw in it a “striking contradiction to the decision of the General assembly,” and who, in response to Austin’s suggestion that the Security Council should ?gin considering concrete proposals, said that would be impossible, that he would ## to consult his government.
The U.S. plan, however, received immediate support from Dr. T.F. Tsiang and Alexander Parodi of France. Tsiang said the trusteeship plan was in line with his a government’s attitude since the last General Assembly, adding that it was evident at any solution not agreeable to both parties might to lead to war.
Parodi said he, too, would have to seek instructions from Paris, but that he ?elt certain the French Government would agree to a solution along the lines of the Justin plan.
U.N. Secretary-General Trygve Lie reminded the Big Powers conference that U.N. trusteeship for Palestine was not a new idea. It had been proposed to UNSCOP by the Australian delegation in 1947, and was withdrawn after UNSCOP had found it would be unacceptable to either Arabs or Jews and would precipitate a situation likely to require outside aid than partition.
AUSTIN ASKS PALESTINE COMMISSION TO SUSPEND IMPLEMENTATION OPERATIONS
Austin told the Big Four that any truce in Palestine would have to be political as well as military, that under present conditions with the British giving up the Mandate May 15, it was not possible to establish peaceful conditions unless a successor government were prepared to take over at once. Since the United Nations had never taken a legal and binding decision to be that successor government, a special session must be held at once.
Meanwhile, the U.S. delegate declared, the Security Council should instruct the Palestine Commission to suspend its operations toward effecting implementation of the partition plan, The Assembly’s plan, he said, was an integral whole and could not be implemented piecemeal. The Big Four had agreed, he said, that peaceful implementation of the partition scheme was impossible. Gromyko objected to this ?tement. There was no general agreement to that effect, he insisted.
SECURITY COUNCIL GETS BIG POWERS REPORT ON PALESTINE
The American delegate said that the views expressed in his report were those China, France and the United States. Soviet delegate Andrei Gremyko said he understood that, in making the report, Austin was speaking in the name of the American legation only and not as rapporteur as he had not been so designated. Austin emphasized that the document was only the beginning of the Big Powers’ report and that farther consultations are Intended “with a view to meeting the timetable” laid down ? the partition plan of the U.N. General Assembly.
The Soviet delegate objected especially to that part of Austin’s statement which said that “continuation of the infiltration into Palestine by land and sea of groups and persons with the purpose of taking part in violence would aggravate still further the situation.” He said that he does not like the phrase “by land and sea” because “everyone knows which infiltration it is that endangers the implementation of the Assembly resolution.” The insertion of this phrase, he stated, weakened the entire recommendation of the Big Powers to the Security Council and nullified its importance.
Any attempt to reopen the Palestine case on a basis other than partition would, he said, throw the whole settlement back by at least a year since alternative plans and proposals had all been discussed and rejected at the special session last spring and at the subsequent second General Assembly session. Gromyko also expressed doubt as to the correctness of Austin’s report that the Jewish Agency has indicated that the partition plan cannot be implemented by peaceful means under the present circumstances.
At the same, time, the Soviet delegate agreed with the two-point recommendation presented by Austin urging the Security Council to make it clear that the Council “is determined not to permit the existence of a threat to international peace in Palestine” and that “the Council should take further action by all means available to it to bring about the immediate cessation of violence and the restoration of peace and order in Palestine.”
FALL TEXT OF AUSTIN REPORT; BLOODSHED PREDICTED AFTER MANDATE’S END
Austin reported that the consultations among the permanent members of the Council and informal communications with the Palestine Commission, the Mandatory Power, the Jewish Agency and the Arab Higher Committee held since March 5, 1948, have developed the following facts regarding the situation with respect to Palestine:
“1. The Jewish Agency accepts the partition plan, considers it to be the irreducible minimum acceptable to the Jews, and insists upon the implementation of the plan without modification.
“2. The Arab Higher Committee rejects any solution based on partition in any from and considers that the only acceptable solution is the formation of one. Independent state for the whole of Palestine whose constitution would be based on democratic principles and which would include adequate safeguards for minorities and ? safety of the Holy Places.
“3. No modifications in the essentials of the partition plan are acceptable the Jewish Agency and no modifications would make the plan acceptable to the Arab higher Committee.
“4. The Palestine Commission, the Mandatory Power, the Jewish Agency and the ?Arab Higher Committee have indicated that the partition plan cannot be implemented by careful means under present conditions.
“5. The Mandatory Power has confirmed that a considerable number of incursions of illegal arms and armed elements into Palestine have occurred by land and by ?.
“6. The gradual withdrawal of the military forces of the mandatory power all, in the absence of agreement, result in increasing violence and disorder in Palestine. Warfare of a guerrilla type grows more violent constantly.
“7. If the Mandate is terminated prior to a peaceful solution by the problem, large-scale fighting between the two communities can be expected.
“As a result of the consultations of the permanent members regarding the situation with respect to Palestine, they find and report that a continuation of the infiltration into Palestine by land and by sea of groups and persons with the purpose of taking part in violence would aggravate still further the situation and recommend:
“(A) That the Security Council should make it dear to the parties and government concerned that the Security Council is determined not to permit the existence of a threat to international peace in Palestine, and
“(B) That the Security Council should take further action by all means available to it to bring about the immediate cessation of violence and the restoration of peace and order in Palestine.”
SILVER WARNS SECURITY COUNCIL AGAINST “DETOUR OF ACTION”
Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, addressing the morning session of the Security Council, said the contents of the forthcoming Council resolution would determine the importance of the recommendations contained in Austin’s report. It would also determine whether they were a step forward toward implementation or a “detour of action,” he said.
Dr. Silver took exception to the part of the report in which the Jewish Agency allegedly assented to the conclusion of the Big Powers that peaceful partition impossible “under present conditions.” He said the Agency could agree to such a formulation provided the tern “conditions” meant the attempt of Arab states to oppose the partition decision by force. He objected vigorously to the phrase referring to in filtration “by land and by sea,” and pointed out that while the Palestine Government had reported several armed incursions of Arab troops to the Palestine Commission, the a Mandatory Power had never referred to armed element making incursions by sea.
SYRIAN DELEGATE WANTS NEW SESSION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Dr. Tsiang said the Austin report fully represented the views of his government. He revealed that it was he who insisted on the insertion of the phrase “by land ## by sea” on the promise that if the Palestine situation is not to be permitted to develop into a threat to the peace,” the accumulation of arms and armed elements in Palestine must be stopped as quickly as Possible.
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.
