Formation of a United Nations police force “to secure and supervise the cessation of hostilities in Egypt” was pushed with great speed today. The special emergency session of the General Assembly passed a resolution last night authorizing such a command by a vote of 57 in favor, with none against and 19 abstentions.
Both Israel and Egypt abstained, although in a cable from Egypt’s Foreign Minister Mahmoud Fawzi to United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold this afternoon, the Cairo Government accepted the police plan. The Soviet Union and the entire Soviet bloc also abstained, as did Britain and France.
Major General E. L. M. Burns of Canada, for the last two years Chief of Staff of the United Nations. Truce Supervision Organization in Palestine, was named by the Assembly, at the suggestion of Mr. Hammarskjold, as commander of the new UN force. Gen. Burns was authorized to recruit officers for his command from among UN members with the exception of the Big Five.
A preliminary statement of Israel’s position regarding the UN police plan was made at last night’s meeting by Abba. Eban, Israeli delegate. Today, Mr. Eban met with Mr. Hammarskjold and is believed to have gone into greater detail, pointing out Israel’s objections to the plan.
One of Israel’s major objections, as voiced in the Assembly, concerned the consent of any nation where troops might be stationed. “It would seem to my delegation,” Mr. Eban told the Assembly, “to be axiomatic under the law of the United Nations Charter that the stationing or any force in a territory under Israel’s jurisdiction or control is not possible in law without the Israel Government’s sovereign consent.”
“If this question of sovereign consent were not clarified,” Mr. Eban states, “then a precedent would be created whereby a majority of the General Assembly could decide to station forces in the territory of any state irrespective of its prior consent.”
Canada, Norway, New Zealand and Colombia immediately offered to contribute men to the UN police force. India’s delegation said it would recommend that a similar offer be made. U. S. delegate Henry Cabot Lodge told the Assembly that while the United States will not contribute men to the police force, it was ready immediately to help with transport and supplies. (A night session of the General Assembly was scheduled to take place late this evening.)
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