Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold said here today he had no objection to a proposal by Senator W. J. Fulbright for creation of a new body of experts to study the Arab refugee problem for the purpose of having it solved.
At a general press conference, at which the principal subject was the cold war and top-level East-West relations, Mr. Hammarskjold was asked for comment on the report that Sen. Fulbright, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, indicated during his visit to Israel earlier this week, that upon his return to Washington, he will suggest that a fresh study be made of the problem.
“I myself have made such a study,” Mr. Hammarskjold replied, “but if there is a feeling that there is a need for a new body–by all means.” The study to which he referred was a plan he proposed to the United Nations for the development of the productive economy of the Middle East as a means toward a definite solution of the Arab refugee problem through absorption of refugees in the Arab countries where they now live.
(The Jewish Telegraphic Agency correspondent in Jerusalem today reported that Senator Fulbright, during his talks with Premier David Ben-Gurion and Foreign Minister Golda Meir admitted that the only constructive solution of the Arab refugee problem was their resettlement in vast underdeveloped areas of the Arab countries. He suggested that Israel should contribute toward this solution by accepting more than a symbolic number of refugees. Premier Ben-Gurion reportedly told him that any discussion of the refugees must be part of preliminary Arab-Israel peace talks).
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