Britain Advises U.N. Implementation Commission Not to Arrive in Palestine Before May 1st

Sir Alexander Cadogan, chief of the British delegation at the United Nations, today indicated to the U.N, Implementation Commission that it would not be advisable for it to arrive in Palestine before May 1, two weeks prior to the termination of the Palestine mandate.

Speaking at a closed session of the Commission, the British representative voided giving a clear answer to the question of whether Britain will evacuate a port in the Jewish area of Palestine by February 1, as provided in a General Assembly resolution. The British Government, he said, has responsibility up to the last minute before termination of the mandate. However, he added that the subject was open for further negotiations with the Commission.

Most of Cadogan’s statement, which lasted 20 minutes, was devoted to a resume and affirmation of previous major British declarations in Palestine. He made no attempt to answer charges made by the Jewish Agency this week that the British were favoring the Arabs in the present situation in Palestine.

(In Jerusalem, a government spokesman today told a press conference that the Palestine Government is ready to receive the technical staff of the U.N. Implementation Commission, in order to hand over files, but would not agree to the arrival of members of the Commission, fearing “dual authority.”)

Sir Alexander Cadogan gave the Commission some information regarding the British time-table for tactical withdrawal from Palestine. It is this information which the British Government was most anxious to keep secret, presumably because it would affect the security situation in Palestine and aggravate the present unrest in the country.

Tomorrow, the Commission will hear Moshe Shertok on behalf of the Jewish Agency. Jewish Agency representatives will also be heard on Friday by the U. N. working group preparing the status for an internationalized Jerusalem.