Terming the Palestine question “one of the ?eatest test Issues, of the United Nations,” former Governor Herbert H. Lehman today criticized the American Government for its new policy on Palestine which resulted in ## decision taken by the U.N. Security Council last night to call a special session ? the General Assembly to reconsider the recommendation to partition Palestine into wish and Arab states.
“The unexpected reversal of the American official position has struck a vital bow at the authority of the United Nations and the international prestige of the United States,” Lehman said in an address before the New York State Convention of Americans for Democratic Action. “It is admitted that it was Arab intransigence which caused our Government to reverse its position and to recommend that the U.N. bow ## Arab threats.
“I have always been an ardent supporter of the United Nations since its creation. I have placed great hope in its effectiveness as a weapon of world security and ##ace. Together with millions of other Americans, I am still unwilling to surrender ?is hope. But certainly there will be little realistic hope for the effectiveness ## success of the U.N. if it is compelled to confess complete impotence and is ?rced to scrap its own decisions because of threats.
“It is claimed that the new plan of trusteeship will insure peace in the Mid## East. Certainly there is no assurance of this. A trusteeship is not self-executing. It will, in my opinion, require at least as great an international force to en?rce trusteeship as to implement partition. And we will abandon a tragically-be-?ayed people who, although small in number and now almost defenseless, constitute ##e only democratic group in the vast mass of Arab feudalism and autocracy.
“Our international security is, of course, of supreme importance to every American, “Lehman declared.” Every loyal American — regardless of religious faith ## race — would willingly lay aside all other interests if a threat to our national security had been demonstrated. But no reasons have been advanced to the American people to alter their belief that the objective sought in the original proposal of partition can be attained consistently with the security of the United States.”
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