The United States today charged the British Government with refusal to cooperate in a United Nations solution of the Palestine problem, following receipt of a message from British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin inferring the U.N. that Britain can find no suitable neutral commissioner for Jerusalem.
Bevin’s message, which was addressed to U.N. Secretary General Trygve Lie, cussed great embarrassment to the American and other delegations, who only less than ## hours ago at the General Assembly voted authorization for Britain to appoint a commission to administer the city of Jerusalem after the expiration of the Palestine andante on May 15. Bevin requested the U.N. to suggest names of candidates in confutation with the Jewish Agency and the Arab Higher Committee at Lake Success.
“This if still another striking example of the lack of British cooperation on the whole Palestine issue,” a U.S. spokesman said. Another member of the U.S. ##legation bluntly accused the British of refusing to make the appointment they had encouraged at the General Assembly only 18 hours previously on the grounds that the Jerusalem commissioner, shorn of enforcement powers, was bound to fail in his task, and Britain wanted the U.N. to be responsible for that failure.After the U.S. declaration had been made public, the British delegation called a press conference at which an official spokesman said the text which had been released by the U.N. came from Colonial Secretary Arthur Creech-Jones, not from Bevin. It was based, he added, upon two telegrams received here today from High commissioner Sir Alan G. Cunningham in Jerusalem.
The High Commissioner’s message said there is no one in Palestine who now ###an be considered a suitable candidate and that it would be impossible to secure Arab-Jewish agreement on the spot. It was Creech-Jones, the spokesman added, who Suggested that Secretary General Lie might consult with Arab and Jewish representatives at Lake Success. He then reported that a new message had arrived this afternoon from the Foreign Office advising the British delegation that’ Britain is still trying to find a candidate for the post of Jerusalem Commissioner.
U.H. STARTS CONSULTATIONS WITH JEWS, ARABS ON COMMISSIONER
Immediately after the British announcement a meeting with Jewish and Arab representatives was called by Lie and Dr. Jose Arce, president of the General Assembly. It is expected that an agreement will be reached on a man acceptable to both parties within the next 24 hours, particularly in view of the announced truce agreement in Jerusalem.
Major Aubrey Eban, of the Jewish Agency, today called upon the Security Council to take Immediate action against Arab armies poised to invade Palestine when the Mandate expires.Pointing out that responsible ministers of the Arab League states had never bothered to deny press reports of their intention to launch an aggressive war against the Jews of Palestine, Eban warned that truce talks could achieve nothing until that threat is removed.
Sir Alexander Cadogan of Britain, in reply to a question asking if Britain could assist in providing better communications facilities for the U.N. truce Commission in Jerusalem, announced that the British Cable and Wireless Company would soon transfer its transmitters to Amman in Transjordan, leaving only a mobile transmitter in Palestine,He saw no prospect of resuming the suspended airmail service since further use of both Lydda and Haifa airports was “highly speculative.”
Creech-Jones, testifying today before the 12-nember Political Committee sub-committee studying the problem of establishing a provisional regime in Palestine, admitted that partition has taken deep root, but warned that the Jewish state could not live in isolation from the rest of the country.For the composition of the interim regime he proposed the members of the Consular Truce Commission–the Jerusalem consuls of the U.S., France and Bekgium–plus two more individuals, one of whom might be Karel Lisicky, chairman of the U.N. Palestine Commission.
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.
