The United Nations Committee on Palestine today appointed a ten-man subcommittee to visit displaced persons camps. The itinerary will be worked out tomorrow. The inspection is expected to take only five days, during which the group will visit camps in the British and American zones of Germany and Austria. The camps in Italy will probably not be visited.
(Reuter’s reported today that the main task of the sub-committee will be “to discover whether pressure to emigrate to Palestine originates in the DP camps themselves or is the result of outside propaganda.” The members of the sub-committee will concentrate more on the moral and political attitude of the displaced persons than on camp conditions, the report said.)
Heading the sub-committee is John D.L. Hood of Australia. The other members are Dr. George Granados, of Guatemala, Prof. Enrique Fabregat, and the alternates of Sweden, India, Czechoslovakia, Canada, Iran, The Netherlands, and Yugoslavia.
A resolution calling for emergency interim action on the Palestine problem was circulated today among members of UNSSCOP by Prof. Fabregat. The draft resolution called for the immediate entry into Palestine of Jewish children now held at Cyprus, in DP camps on the Continent, on refugee ships now on the seas; secondly, for entry into Palestine of the children’s parents on provisional certificates; and, thirdly, that those parents and their children be placed under the care of the Jewish Agency. A vote on the resolution was postponed until UNSCOP convenes to consider interim proposals on Palestine.
CHAIRMAN SAYS UNSCOP WILL NOT ACT ON EXODUS INCIDENT
At a press conference this afternoon, UNSCOP Chairman Emil Sandstroem, declared that “what we have seen in Palestine urges upon us the need for a speedy solution. In response to a question whether the committee would take action if the Palestine situation became much worse, he said that it would “depend upon what happens,” adding that the delegates are keeping in touch with the situation there through the Palestine press, the Jewish Agency and British liaison officials. He emphasized that the commission’s general problem is the future of Palestine, therefore it is taking no action in individual cases such as that of the Exodus refugees.
He outlined a three-stage working plan to be used by the body in drafting its report. Firstly, it will conduct a discussion of the historical and factual back ground of the problem. Secondly, the delegates will attempt to analyze a possible solution. Finally, UNSCOP will outline the implementation of its proposed solution. He added that the report would contain recommendations for implementation. Sand-strom told the press conference that he could see no need for further Palestine commissions.
Touching on the Palestine Arab boycott of the committee, he said that the members were satisfied that they had received most of the details of the Arab case, citing private conversations with leading Arabs and the testimony of the Arab states in Lebanon and Transjordan. This testimony, he continued, “to a certain extent substituted for the pleading of the (Palestine) Arab Higher Committee.” He said that UNSCOP had not yet invited Arab liaison officials, but the Arabs might send such representatives on their own initiative.
In response to a final question, he said that it was impossible at this time (##) on the possibility of a unanimous report issuing from the committee.
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