The Palestine question was headed for speedy consideration by the General Assembly tonight following its approval by the General (steering) Committee for inclusion on the Assembly agenda.
The Committee also included the question of a U.N. guard for U.N. personnel and compensation for injuries suffered in the service of the international organization. The question of Palestine Arab refugees, as raised in the second part of Bernadotte’s report, was immediately referred to the Social and Humenitarian Committee for a separate discussion, on the suggestion of committee chairman Charles Malik Lebanon.
The anticipated British proposal that a special Ad Hoc Palestine Committee be established was not forthcoming today, but the matter was referred to the Political Committee where committee chairman Paul Henri-Speak privately declared that as far as he was concerned “Palestine ought to be first on the agenda.”
Hector McNeil, British Secretary of State and head of the United Kingdom delegation in the absence of Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin, called for priority consideration of the Palestine question. McNeil also served notice that he might call for a special Palestine committee at a later time. Malik, appealing for Priority of consideration for the Arab refugee question, said that it was “one of the chief blocks to the envisaged peaceful settlement.”
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