The U.N. Security Council today voted in favor of the two American resolutions urging the convocation of a special session of the General Assembly to reconsider its Palestine partition decision and to call for an Arab-Jewish truce in Palestine.
The resolution for the truce was adopted unanimously by the 11 members of the Council. The resolution for a special session was adopted by a vote of 9 in favor and two abstaining. The abstentions were recorded by the Soviet Union and the Ukraine. The special Assembly will open on April 16.
Prior to the voting on the resolutions, British delegate Sir Alexander Cadogan announced that he had received instructions from his government to support the two U.S. proposals. At the same time, he declared that Britain will definitely terminate the Palestine Mandate by May 15 and will adhere to its original evacuation timetable.
This was the first time since the Palestine question was placed before the U.N. that the British Government has abandoned its position of “neutrality” or abstention from voting on decisions concerning Palestine. In making his announcement, Sir Alexander emphasized that there could be no question of Britain continuing its administrative authority in Palestine after May 15.
SHERTOK PLEADS AGAINST TRUSTEESHIP; WANTS U.N. AUTHORITY TO SUPERVISE TRUCE
Moshe Shertok, presenting the views of the Jewish Agency on the American resolutions in an impassioned plea to the Council, spoke against trusteeship and for the continuation of U.N. plans to implement the partition decision. He also emphasized that if a truce is achieved in Palestine, there must be an international authority to maintain and supervise it.
The U.S. proposal for a truce, he printed out, was “misleading” since it presented a distorted picture of the situation in Palestine by giving the impression that it was a purely local matter and that both sides were actually at fault. He said that 7,500 armed Arabs invaded Palestine from neighboring countries and that they are the main threat to law and order in the country.
Without these incursions from the Arab states, which are members of the United Nations, he declared, there would be no crisis and the problem of partition would have been easily resolved. He asked whether it was proper for the Council not to take steps to condemn, suppress or even report such acts of aggression. The evidence, he said, was too overwhelming that Syria and Egypt were financing expeditions into Palestine while the Lebanese Parliament was openly voting appropriations to supply arms and men for the Palestine conflict.
Referring to the U.S. proposal for an Arab-Jewish truce, Shertok said that the truce had to be regarded as a step in the implementation, of partition. It must ##ipulate the evacuation of the foreign armed Arabs from Palestine and the prevention further incursions. There must be no “political reward” for violence or for durance of a U.N. decision, he stated.Temporary trusteeship for Palestine, Shertok argued, would only aggravate be situation, unless it were tied to a definite political solution. He emphasized that the Jews and the Arabs were ready for independence and any trusteeship plan would any, or at least delay, that independence. The American proposal, he added, was “a ?ap into perils unknown” without assurance of cooperation or of means of carrying ?rt trusteeship, at a time when much effort had gone into charting the path to partition
JERUSALEM MAY BECOME A “SHAMBLES,” SHERTOK WARNS; URGES U.N. ACTION
In a climax which evoked applause from the audience, Shertok pleaded that is not yet too late to implement the U.N. partition decision. He concluded by speaking of the perils now facing Jerusalem, a city with a Jewish majority which, he said, the Mandatory Power is letting fall into the hands of Arab fanatics. Notorious henchmen of the Mufti, he said, were engaged in an attempt to cut off food and water from the Jews in Jerusalem and to harass and kill them.
Warning that Jerusalem was in danger of becoming a battlefield, even a ?shambles,”1 Shertok emphasized that it was the responsibility of the United Nations at least to enforce peace and order in this city “so important to all mankind,” If the U.N. will not assume this responsibility, it will fall to the Jews to do their utmost to save the city, he declared.
U.S. WILL PRESENT DETAILS OF TRUSTEESHIP PLAN ON MONDAY
Following the vote by the Council favoring the American resolutions, U.S. delegate Warren Austin invited all of the Council members to meet in the office of his delegation on Monday afternoon to consider the U.S. proposal for a temporary U.N. trusteeship over Palestine.
Soviet delegate Andrei Gromyko declared that the Council is not empowered to order the U.N. Palestine Commission to suspend its activities. The Soviet Union, he said, supported the American truce resolution, but believes that the Palestine Commission must continue its work on the basis of the powers granted it by the Assembly, and only the Assembly can revoke these powers.
Dr. Abba Hillel Silver and Shertok insisted after today’s dramatic events that the formation of the Jewish State would go on.
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