A demand for measures to insure the “speediest and most effective implementation” of the United Nations decision to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab states was voiced here tonight by Andrei Gromyko, permanent Soviet delegate to the United Nations, addressing a “United States-USSR-Palestine Friendship Dinner” arranged by the American Committee of Jewish Writers, Artists and Scientists at the Hotel Commodore.
More than 1,000 guests attended the dinner, which was also addressed by Dr. Emanuel Neumann, president of the Zionist Organization of America. Messages expressing the hope that peace will come to Palestine and that all members of the United Nations will cooperate in carrying out the partition decision were received from Prof. Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, Moshe Shertok, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise and others.
In emphasizing that the execution of the partition plan brooks no delay the Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister pointed out that the U.N. Security Council “is ready, in case of necessity, to deal with this question” in order to assist in getting quick action on the partition decision. Successful realization of this decision, he said, requires the cooperation of Great Britain with the United States and with the implementation commission “not in words but in deeds.” Formal British cooperation is “absolutely insufficient,” he declared.
WANTS IMPLEMENTATION COMMISSION TO PROCEED SOON TO PALESTINE
“It would be an abnormal situation,” Gromyko stated, “if the Commission, for instance, spent a considerable part of its time at Lake Success instead of going to Palestine and getting acquainted with the state of affairs existing there and carrying out on the spot the tasks entrusted to it.”
The Soviet diplomat regretted the fact that following the U.N. partition decision, clashes between Arabs and Jews in Palestine have increased. “These incidents,” he said, “are the consequences of the actions of some irresponsible elements attempting to hamper the realization of the partition plan. Such actions cannot prevent the final fulfillment of this decision. We cannot agree with the assertions which imply that the partition decision is aimed against the Arabs and Arab countries. It is our deep conviction that this decision corresponds to fundamental national interests of both the Jews and the Arabs.”
Declaring that the partition decision is not “too radical and too bold” but is “the only possible and workable solution,” Gromyko said that partition “is dictated by the interests of the maintenance of peace.” He reiterated that the decision “meets the legitimate aspirations of the Jewish people for the creation of their own state” and that “it would be utterly unjust not to take into account these aspirations” especially after what the Jews have suffered in Europe during the Nazi regime.
Dr. Neumann lauded the cooperation on the Palestine issue between the United States and the USSR during the General Assembly. Answering the question “what will be the orientation of the new Jewish State?” the ZOA president said it will be oriented primarily to the United Nations in whose future effectiveness it will have a vital stake.
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