Maj. Gen. E.L.M. Burns, commander of the United Nations Emergency Force and head of the UN Truce Supervision Organization, today denied a report in a Tel Aviv newspaper that he was resigning because of a conflict between him and UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold over the powers and functions of UNEF in the Gaza area.
“Gen Burns states that this report is quite false, “a statement issued at UNEF headquarters said. “There is a thorough understanding between him and the Secretary General concerning policies governing the operation of UNEF and the reasons therefore and there is not, and has never been, any disagreement. Gen. Burns has no intention of resigning and expects to continue in command of UNEF for an indefinite period. “(A similar denial was issued also at the UN headquarters in New York on behalf of Mr. Hammarskjold.)
An experimental load of 1,700 containers of milk from Israel was brought to the Gaza Strip today by troops of the United Nations Emergency Force in a UNEF quartermaster test of supplying UNEF regularly with fresh Israeli milk. UNEF previously had been prevented by Egyptian authorities from any transactions with Israel, although individual UNEF officers have purchased furniture in Israel for private use.
The Israeli Radio announced plans today to begin foreign language broadcasts for troops of the United Nations Emergency Force who have been cut off from almost all contact with Israel at the insistence of President Nasser of Egypt. Current broadcasts in English, understandable to Indian UNEF troops, and in Spanish-Ladino, understandable to Latin American soldiers, will be augmented by broadcasts in Swedish, Danish and Indonesian. The five-language one-hour daily broadcasts will reach most of the UNEF troops.
Israeli sources said that the UNEF soldiers were eager to obtain information about Israel and that Nasser knew whatever they learned underscored their poor opinion of Egypt. As a result, Nasser persuaded UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold to ban UNEF visits to Israel. Scandinavian-Indonesian broadcasts should help UNEF soldiers get a “real picture of Israel and world news independent of Nasser’s propaganda machine,” it was stated here.
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