Arab “unanimity’s Against U. N. Plan for Palestine Refugees is Doubted

The recommendations advanced by United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold, for the resettlement of Arab refugees in the Middle East area by taking them out of the camps and creating for them productive jobs under a five-year plan to be financed up to $2, 000, 000, 000 by international funds, were rejected yesterday at the end of a 10-day conference of representatives of nine Arab countries held in Beirut.

Despite this rejection, the Lebanese press in Beirut is strongly in favor of Hammarskjold’s recommendations, and is opposed to the manipulations by United Arab Republic President Gamal Abdel Nasser to use the Arab refugees for the purpose of maintaining restlessness in Jordan and other Arab countries which he would like to swallow up. The Times of London reports from Beirut today that the “unanimity” with which the conference there rejected Mr. Hammarskjold’s plan was intended only for public consumption, in an effort to dispel the persistent opposition of the Lebanese press.

The conference of the representatives of the Arab countries repeated the demand that the Arab refugees be given the right to return to Israel. Represented at the conference were all the Arab League countries, except Tunisia. The decision of the conference will be transmitted to a meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Arab lands which will open in Casablanca on September 1 to work out strategy for the session of the United Nations General Assembly which is opening in New York on September 15.

(The New York Times, in a cable from Beirut today, says that “from the tone of some editorials in the Arab press, it is believed that there was pressure within the conference to work out a set of counter-proposals that might have been considered a positive response to Mr. Hammarskjold.” The cable emphasizes that one editorial in an Arab newspaper denounced “those who demand positive action. “)

An evaluation made here of the sentiments in the various Arab countries, with regard to Mr. Hammarskjold’s recommendation to have the Palestine refugees absorbed within five years in the Middle East area as a productive element, indicates that Jordan, which has the largest number of Palestine refugees, is rather favorably inclined toward the plan advanced by the UN Secretary General, which would not only relieve Jordan of the refugees, but would provide huge funds for Jordan’s economic development.

Similarly, it is understood here that Lebanon, where the population is half Christian and half Moslem, is also interested to see the 100, 000 Palestine refugees removed from the country, since their remaining there would add to the Moslem population, and thus affect the present balance between the Christians and the Moslems.