The six American members of the Anglo-American Commission on Palestine spent half an hour with President Truman yesterday afternoon, accompanied by Under-Secretary of State Dean Acheson.
After leaving the White House, Judge Joseph C. Hutcheson, American chairman of the committee, told the press that January 1 has been tentatively set as the date on which the 120-day period–during which the committee has been asked to complete its inpairy–will begin. He said that the body expects to be well advanced before the first of the year with preparations for their work, including assembling data and gathering facts. “We are all in agreement,” he said, “that the matter should be and can be expedited.”
Judge Hutcheson said that the President told the committee members that he was aware that they had a hard job, but that he has hopes and beliefs in the work they will accomplish.
The American chairman said that he has been in touch, by trans-Atlantic telephone and teletype, with the British section of the committee. Both groups, he said, have agreed to proceed “with the greatest possible expedition. Both realize the urgency of the matter, and are determined to bend every effort to accomplishing it.”
Judge Hutcheson said that the committee may have an announcement next week on the personnel of its secretariat. He added that he has discussed with the British the time and place of Joint meetings, which have not been decided yet, organization and, to a very small extent, methods of conducting the investigation. No plans have been set yet for visiting Palestine, nor a date set for the Americans to go abroad, he reported.
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