A proposal that the United Nations acquire the Sinai Peninsula for use as an assembly base for a permanent United Nations world constabulary force, a permanent settlement area for refugees, and a laboratory to test the large-scale irrigation of arid regions with desalted sea-water, was brought up in the House of Commons last night. The plan was outlined in the form of a question addressed to Foreign Secretary George Brown by Laborite MP Peter Archer, who wanted to know if Mr. Brown would initiate discussions of such a project at the U.N.
Replying for the Government, Joint Minister of State Goronwy Roberts said that the Foreign Secretary, “while favoring forthright measures to solve the refugee problem in the Middle East, believes that this and other points raised in the question can best be considered as part of a general political settlement in the region,” Mr. Roberts referred to the mission of U.N.’s special Mideast emissary, Ambassador Gunnar Jarring, as representing “the best chance of real progress toward such a settlement and we do not wish, at this juncture, to take any initiatives which might prejudice or prejudge his work.”
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