The British Government today submitted to the United Nations secretariat a request that a special session of the U.N. General Assembly be summoned to discuss the Palestine question.
The British move, which had been expected for several days, was announced this morning by Acting Secretary-General Victor Hoo. It came after France, China and the Soviet Union had indicated, in reply to an informal query by the secretariat, that they had no objections to a special session. The U.S. Government announced last Friday that it would support the British proposal.
Although the British are know to prefer restricting the work of the session to the setting up of an inquiry commission to study the Palestine problem and to make recommendations to the next regular Assembly meeting, Mr. Hoo said that the session itself would determine the scope of its activities.
He added that he did not know how large a meeting would be held, since it was up to the member governments to determine how many delegates they wished to send. It has been suggested in some quarters that cach nation restrict its delegation to one member to keep down the expenses of the meeting. Whether the session is to be held at Lake Success or in the Assembly chamber at Flushing Meadows will be determined by the number of delegates.
Mr. Hoo said that the U.N. secretariat would begin immediately to poll the 55 member nations on whether they favored calling the special meeting. He added that little opposition was expected. The only nations that have so far indicated that they would be opposed are the five Arab states.
TEXT OF BRITISH NOTE TO UNITED NATIONS
The text of the British note to Mr. Hoo, which was su bmitted by Sir Alexander Cadogan, chief of the United Kingdom delegation, read as follows:
“His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom request the Secretary-General of the United Nations to place the question of Palestine on the Agenda of the General Assembly at its next regular Annual Session. They will submit to the Assembly an account of their administration of the League of Nations Mandate and will ask the Assambly to make recommendations, under Article 10 of the Charter, concerning the future government of Palestine.
“In making this request, His Majesty’s Government draw the attention of the Secretary-General to the desirability of an early settlement in Palestine and to the risk that the General Assembly might not be able to decide upon its recommendations at its next regular Annual Session unless some preliminary study of the questions had previously been made under the auspices of the United Nations. They therefcre request the Secretary-General to summon, as soon as possible, a special Session of the General Assembly for the purpose of constituting and instructing a Special Committee to prepare for the consideration, at the regular Session of the Assembly, of the question referred to in the preceding paragraph.”
(Several high Soviet Siplomats will arrive in Palestine shortly to make an on-the-spot study of the Jewish-Arab dispute here, it was reported today from Jerusalem. The Soviet interest is believed motivated by the fact that Russia, as one of the leading members of the U.N., will be obliged to take a definite stand on the question one way or the other when the Assembly meets.)
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