A compromise solution of the controversy over the Jerusalem mayoralty was proposed today by Jewish members of the city’s municipal council in an official reply to the proposal by High Commissioner Lord Gort that the position be rotated, with a Jew, Arab and Christian holding it for alternate one-year terms.
The compromise suggests: 1 – The first mayer under the rotation plan be a Jew, (The present Acting Mayer is Daniel Auster, a Jew.); 2 – The Christian mayer should be English, Since allowing a christian Arab to hold the post “would be giving the Arab minority twice as much representation as the Jewish majority”; and 3 – The tenure of office should be two years instead of the one year proposed.
The councillers stressed that the above arrangement was an extraordinary departure from normal procedure and could apply only to Jerusalem in view of its special religious character for all three religions. They also emphasized that it was a temporary arrangement until “a further stage in the development of local self- government is reached.”
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