U. N. Chief Leaves for Mid-east in Search of ‘satisfactory’ Solution

Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold expressed the hope today that the United Nations may be able to establish a situation in Gaza “that will give all parties satisfaction, including Israel.” The Secretary General left by air today for the Middle East. He said he expected to be away about ten days or two weeks. He told reporters at the International Airport before his departure, in response to questions whether he would tackle basic problems as well as immediate issues that “nothing, in principle, is excluded.”

The basic obstacles to settlement of Arab-Israel tensions, he said, are embodied “in an atmosphere of distrust and fear.” If that atmosphere can be cleared, he said, “the road is open.”

He described the Washington talks between Israel Foreign Minister Golda Meir and Secretary of State Dulles as “a natural part of the continuous negotiations which are taking place inside the United Nations and outside of it.”

HAMMARSKJOLD HAS ‘NO SET AGENDA’ FOR TALKS

In a formal statement issued at his UN headquarters earlier, Mr. Hammarskjold said that “there is no set agenda for the forthcoming exploratory talks. Issues of immediate practical significance are the questions affecting UN responsibility for the canal clearance, etcetera, and continued UNEF activities in the region. However, the talks may cover other ground as indicated by the aims set out in the General Assembly resolutions on the Middle East crisis.”

This statement seemed so broad to many observers here as to include possibly Israel’s insistence, voiced firmly to Mr. Hammarskjold last night, that Egypt must be asked at this time to drop its insistence on its claimed “rights of belligerence.”

Last night’s long conversations between Mr. Hammarskjold and four members of the Israel delegation, headed by Foreign Minister Golda Meir, put the onus for solving the problem of “rights of belligerence” squarely on Mr. Hammarskjold. The Israel delegation used that point as its major issue. It was understood to have told Mr. Hammarskjold that there is no objection whatever to Egypt’s return to Gaza–if it is a peaceful Egypt that goes into the strip. But the Israelis have apparently made it clear that they reserve their right of forceful action if Gaza goes back to Egypt under a state of belligerence.

Before he left today, Mr. Hammarskjold met with members of his UNEF advisory committee and discussed the question of UN-Egypt participation in the administration of Gaza. Some of the members of the advisory committee are known to have insisted that the placement of UNEF alone the armistice line is not enough if UNEF does not have responsibility for internal security in the Gaza Strip.