Adoption of the American plan on trusteeships as a basis for discussion, by unanimous vote of the UNCIO’s Trusteeship Committee, means that there will be no change at present in the status of Palestine, according to well informed observers here.
The U. S. plan provides for the transfer of mandated territories to trusteeship by voluntary agreement between the mandatory power and the Security Council of the new world organization. The agreement will specify the terms under which the territory will be administered. Since only general machinery is being set up here, such agreements will be the subject of future negotiations.
The American plan meets the demands of the American Jewish Conference and of the American Jewish Committee that nothing shall be done here which would impair the rights of Jews in connection with Palestine. It authorizes the Trusteeship Council to receive petitions and institute periodic investigations and states that the purpose of the trusteeship system is to insure the economic and social advancement of the peoples concerned and also develop self-government in the trusteed areas.
At a press conference here yesterday, representatives of the New Zionist Organization urged that the Palestine mandate be placed under some international authority for five years, after which Palestine should become a Jewish state. Major William Friedman, of New York, who presided, charged the British with following a policy designed to keep the Jewish people from strengthening their position in Palestine. Other members of the NZO delegation who spoke were Prof. A. S. Yahuda and Ben I. Nataniah.
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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.