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British Govt. to Press for Earliest Possible Appointment of Jerusalem U.N. Governor

March 30, 1948
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The British Cabinet has instructed the United Kingdom delegation at Lake Success to press for the earliest possible appointment of U.N. Governor for the internationalized city of Jerusalem, it was reported here today.

The Cabinet has also decided to permit Britons in the Palestine police service to join a U.N. force to guard the Holy Places in Jerusalem after the British evacuation is completed. A government spokesman pointed out that neither move affects the evacuation schedule, and that only after the withdrawal is completed will Britain ##e free to decide whether to participate in any subsequent U.N. trusteeship, scheme for Palestine.

During an Easter sermon yesterday, Dr. Cyril Garbett, Archbishop of York, urged the immediate appointment of a U.N. Governor for Jerusalem and the dispatch of an adequate force to protect the city’s sacred shrines which, he said, were in the greatest danger. If any sacred place were damaged during a fight between Arabs and Jews after the British withdraw, the prestige of the United Nations would suffer, he said.

BRITISH PRESS WANTS UNITED STATES TO SEND TROOPS TO PALESTINE

British newspapers today suggested that the United States should send troops to Palestine to keep the peace there. They also demanded that the British Government make its intentions clear immediately on the reported plan for a “religious partition of Jerusalem.

The News-Chronicle said in an editorial: “Only firm evidence that the world outside is determined to save the Holy City from the ravages of racial and religious war can prevent the situation from getting still worse. Recent reports speak of a plan by the Palestine Government for a “religious partition” of the city to be maintained by an international force of volunteers. The scheme is believed to have been forwarded already to the Colonial Office for consideration. If a major tragedy is to be averted the government should make its intentions clear immediately. In this it would surely have the support not only of the churches but of all civilized communities.”

The Yorkshire Post in an editorial declared: “It cannot be said that American statesmanship has done anything during the last few days to throw a gleam of hope across the picture, Palestine lies near the invisible line of demarcation separating American and Russian interests in the Near East. There is no need to elaborate these facts. They show with sufficient clarity the menacing possibilities of a Palestine whose exhaustion invites intervention.

“Two conditions must be fulfilled if there is to be any hope, however slight, of better things. One is to establish a truce unhampered by condition of a Kind calculated to wreck it before it begins. The other is that the United States prove itself ready to send a fall, not merely a token, force to keep the peace. We have urged before that the peace can be kept by a force which it is manifestly impossible to resist. Such a force the United States alone can supply.”

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